WANDA GAG'S THE SIX SWANS

Third in the series of separate, small-format picture-book versions of Gag's Tales from Grimm, with pictures that display Tomes' familiar sturdy charms along with the psychological shading that picks up the story's tones. When the good king meets the old witch in the forest on page one, a hooded falcon above his head portends the worst. When the king is forced to marry the witch's pretty blond daughter, the new Queen's gaze chills bones. True, Tomes' princess looks, more like her typical peasant children than a princess, and one wonders why the king looks mean when he's said to be troubled. But the six brothers, turned to swans (and, in one picture, in the process of becoming human for their daily quarter-of-an-hour), are all the more poignant for being not tragic young men but dear brave little boys. And overall Tomes, like Gag, gives a touching, recognizable reality to a story that is often treated as pretty, faraway, and romantic.