Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People

Adding to her stable of stellar collections (Diane Goode's Book of Scary Stories & Songs, etc.), Goode has gathered an assortment of folktales, fairy tales and poems--featuring the tall and the small--under one handsomely designed roof. In the introduction, Goode quotes her mother (""If you want to tell a good story, you have to exaggerate things"") and explains that folktales are her favorites--and it shows. Some selections are familiar (""The Shoemaker and the Elves""), others are not (""Lovesick Lopez""); some star recognizable creatures (ogres and ghosts), others do not (the hairy man). From Japan to the West Indies and the British Isles, these delightful stories and snippets come from a wide range of cultures and provide a variety of fare for everything from reading aloud (the classic ""Teeny-Tiny"") to going to sleep (Nancy Willard's poem ""Magic Story for Falling Asleep"" closes the collection). Colorful illustrations run the gamut from miniature teacup-sized (in which a mouse is haunted by a tiny ghost) to swamp-sized (in which an alligator pursues a boy across the book's gutter). With this blithely spirited book, Goode has done it again... and that's no exaggeration. All ages. (Sept.)