THE FAIR AT KANTA: A Story from Peru

An uninspired pseudofolk tale about orphaned Pauco, on his way to market with twenty bags of barley tied to his llamas when a fox creeps into the cave where he is camping and steals the twenty ropes. But Pauco's magic flute summons--lo and behold--a talking donkey, who plays dead so that the fox will bring out the ropes to tie up his carcass. . . . You can guess the ending, with Pauco making out at the market and winning his grandmother's praise on his return home. As for Llerena's black and white drawings, what stands out is not the deliberate distortion but the unattractive, bloated faces of the people and the distracting prominence of the scratchy lines and dull, disorderly background details (pebbles, grasses, etc.)