A COLLECTION OF WOODLAND TALES by Beryl Johnson, Illustrated by Dorothea King


PUBLISHER:
Grandreams Limited, 1991
GENRE: Fiction/Childrens
BOOK IMAGES: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: Contains the previously published books The Spring Rainbow, Pipkin The Shy Pixie, Bigboots and the Midsummer Ball, Bushy Tail's Bedtime.


MY THOUGHTS: This is a large, thin hardcover without dust jacket and is 88 pages. It's in full bright colors with illustrations on every single page. The pages aren't glossy, though. Each of the four stories is 22 pages long. Since it's for children there's not a whole lot going on in each story but the stories are cute and the illustrations are beautiful.

The Spring Rainbow-  A hedgehog and rabbit realize spring hasn't sprung because there aren't any flowers in bloom. Three male fairies, Topper, Popper, and Hopper, try to help them figure out what's going on. They drink rainbow juice and get sick, and that displeases the spring fairies, as the 'juice' is actually paint the fairies were going to use to paint everything so that it looks like spring. This was a cute story and I give it 5 stars. 

Pipkin the Shy Pixie- Pipkin needs to buy a new saucepan but is too shy, so the three pixies from the previous story, Topper, Popper, and Hopper buy him one. Visually the story is nearly ruined because there are modern day cars! in the story, which is odd because the characters in every story are dressed like they are in fairytale times, pre 19th century. I give this story 4 stars.

Bigboots and the Midsummer Ball- Bigboots is the largest pixie in Woodlands. The Fairy Queen wants him to arrange everything for the ball that night. Talk about short notice. The whole town helps out and a good time is had by all. I give this 5 stars.

Bushy Tail's Bedtime- The character's name in the story is spelled Bushytail so I'm not sure why it's two words in the title. His mother tells him to be back home before dark, when it gets cold and Jack Frost is out. He disobeys her and gets his tail frozen by Jack. Those same male pixies from the previous stories set out to find him. I give this 5 stars. I love the darker illustrations for this story. 

You can see the images I took from inside the book here.


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