HARE AND TORTOISE RACE TO THE MOON

A new artist jumps on the bandwagon with yet another updated version of the fable. Responding to Tortoise’s challenge, Hare buys “an aerodynamic hyperspaceship of the latest design,” and zooms around the Earth—“ ‘Woo-hoo, eat my dust!’ ”—as Tortoise’s home-made rocket putt-putts moonward. The art places flat, stylized figures against either monochromatic, open spaces or simple patterns, all evenly, digitally colored; the effect on some pages is faintly southwestern. Corwin offers no moral, just sending Hare and Tortoise leaping cheerfully together over the lunar surface after the race. A salutary resolution, perhaps, but Margery Cuyler’s Roadsigns (2000), illustrated by Steven Haskamp and Caroline Repchuk’s The Race (p. 424), illustrated by Alison Jay, among other recent renditions, offer more drama and visual dash. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)