Rating: ***** 5 stars

Jessica Souhami ,
King Pom and the Fox
Frances Lincoln .

Age: Under 5s

A storyteller, a shadow puppeteer, and an expert in folk tales from around the world with many picture book versions of the same to her credit, Jessica Souhami's latest title offers a Chinese variant of the tale we know as Puss-in-Boots. In this version, it is a wily fox rather than a cat who employs cunning stratagems to present the handsome but penniless young man (Li Ming) to the Emperor as a rich aristocrat, thus gaining him the hand of the Emperor's beautiful daughter.

Brian Alderson once advised ('Fairy Tales in the New Millennium' in BfK [Books for Keeps] No 131) that the best way to judge a printed version of a folk tale is to 'get the words off the page and see how well they fare', explore 'the sound of them on the tongue'. Souhami's humerous, straightforwardly conversational narrative passes the Alderson test with flying colours - this book will be a delight for bedtime or classroom storytime.

In tune with her narrative, Souhami's boldly distinctive illustrative style uses minimalism to great effect - soft pencil on stylised collage shapes against a plain background reflect the freshness and vigour of the storytelling with no extraneous frills. A treat!

Rosemary Stones
September 2007, No. 166

Guide to the rating system:
***** 5 stars, unmissable
**** 4 stars, very good
*** 3 stars, good
** 2 stars, fair
* 1 star, poor