PUSS IN BOOTS

This is a trimmed down version and we can accept the pruning of Perrault's verbal flourishes for a very young audience, but the fiat banality of the illustrations is another matter. Stobbs' clunkish style, better suited to a simple country tale, is woefully out-of-place in Puss' elegant milieu, and woefully inadequate when compared with the panache of Marcia Brown's debonair cat and splendid court.