FRANKLIN AND LUNA AND THE BOOK OF FAIRY TALES

Franklin, a large green dragon, and his friend Luna, a human girl, are about to celebrate the book-loving creature’s 606th birthday.

There’s a special party being planned, but Luna doesn’t want Franklin to know about it. She takes him to a mysterious bookshop, where their adventure starts when Luna’s pet tortoise is trapped in a locked book. In one of the most exciting of the full-bleed, double-page spreads, a swirl of many colors and mysterious symbols, Franklin and Luna follow into the magical world of fairy tales. There, they encounter the usual characters, with some updates. They meet three little pigs building a hotel, “a yawning princess with a bag of frozen peas,” and a host of other characters, including an Asian-appearing knight, a turbaned, bearded maker of glass slippers, a brown-skinned witch, and others. These characters are introduced but do not advance the action. Franklin and Luna (who presents white) finally come up against the big, bad wolf, now a vegetarian yogi, who points out the lost tortoise—who’s winning a race. The trio and all their new fairy-tale friends return to the village for Franklin’s surprise birthday picnic. It’s sweet, but other than diversity in the cast of secondary characters, this third outing for the pair, while echoing a positive message about “friends and books,” doesn’t really present anything new in the world of story.

Another addition to the crowded shelf of books celebrating books.