THE FOOLISH GIANT

A rudimentary giant story about kind but ""not very bright"" Harry, first seen in a St. Francis pose with tiny birds. Unaware that his presence is keeping a wicked wizard from ""taking over the town,"" the regular-sized townspeople exile Harry for his well-meaning but clumsy ways (e.g., he sets out to pick flowers for the mayor's wife and uproots instead the mayor's favorite apple tree). But Harry is called back when the tyrannical wizard threatens to turn everyone to stone toads, and he ends up a hero for saving them all--bravely, though without quite understanding how he did it. Coville's black-and-white cartoons wring some obvious laughs out of the giant's inordinate size; the story is competently contrived but never strays far from formula.