The One and Only Robin Hood

Dressed in green, the ever-fashionable Robin Hood creeps into the king's garden, takes his money, eats the queen's royal bread and honey, lets four and 20 blackbirds loose and runs away with the maid. Following with his soldiers, the king falls into a trap and is turned topsy-turvy from a tree. The same fate befalls the queen. The money is distributed to the poor and an exuberant ring dance follows; Robin is declared a ""good fellow'' as he is married to the Merry Maid under a big tree by a renegade friar. Gray's retelling of the legend is cast appropriately in the question-and-answer format of medieval ballads sung by troubadours in the English countryside. Craig's Robin is true to the spirit of the prankish and heroic original. This updated version preserves and invigorates the story in rib-tickling pictures that add colorful context to the timeless riddle. Ages 3-8. (September)