HOW PRUDENCE PROOVIT PROVED THE TRUTH ABOUT FAIRY TALES

Rational thinking makes a girl unpopular and whimsy wins her friends: so suggests this tale, which does a disservice to logic and literature both. Prudence Proovit has a know-it-all name, strict professors for parents and three secret wishes for "curly hair, a dollhouse, and most of all, a sister." At school, Prudence prefers science to Snow White, and asks bratty but reasonable questions about Goldilocks ("The original dumb blonde?") and Red Riding Hood ("Couldn't that girl tell a woman from a wolf?"). Meanwhile, she receives mysterious postcards: "Dear Prude, Lighten up.... It helps to let down your hair. 'R.' " In the end, the cards' "Fairy Tale Forest" postmarks satisfy Prudence that "Fairy tales must be true," freeing her imagination and allowing her wishes to be granted. Petrosino (Rocky: The Cat Who Barked ) draws kicky cartoons in a curvy black-ink line. Prudence is the only kid wearing owlish glasses and an uptight vest-and-tie uniform, and her frowning classmates keep their distance until her transformation into a true believer. Paratore, making her debut, styles Prudence as a surly nonconformist who wants hard evidence before she accepts anything. "It's good to think. And to wish," Prudence's teacher says, yet the sour message implies that Prudence should ask fewer questions if she wants real happiness. Ages 4-8. (June)