This story is told more fully than in the Prokofieff version, and seems less keyed to the original folk tale, and somewhat simplified in the expansion. But it still is a rather bald story, and the somewhat stylized and mannered pictures by Richard C. Jones are decorative rather than illustrative. Frankly, I feel that these books, if bought at all, will be bought by parents who are rather consciously trying to elevate their children, to train them into a greater sense of a story and musical pattern.