Frog Princess/Tales

From the Soviet artist of Fairy Tales comes this new collection, similar in format to Gennady Spirin's The Enchanter's Spell , which also was an international collection of tales. A story each from Germany, Italy, France, the U.S.S.R., Finland and Sweden make up the collection, just as lavishly illustrated as Ustinov's previous work. Four of the tales The Rain Maiden , The Wildman of the Forest , Princess Roseblossom and The Frog Princess will be less familiar to readers, and are beautifully executed here. But the pictures and words are frequently out of step: pictures anticipate events that fall much later in the story, or the text reveals incidents that are not shown until more pages have been turned. All ages. (Oct.)