The Tiger and the Wise Man

'Sprightly storytelling and cartoon art featuring a huge, vibrantly coloured tiger set this version of a familiar tale apart from other renditions. Having incautiously set a caged tiger free, a turban-clad elder puts off becoming "Lunch-on-Legs" by asking a banyan tree, a crocodile and an eagle whether Tiger's being fair. All three agree that, considering what people have done to them, Tiger is perfectly justified in chowing down forthwith-but just as he's about to dine, along comes a smooth-talking jackal to trick him back into the cage. Peters, billed as "Britain's tallest storyteller," writes with a conversational fluency -"You were hungry. And now you've got your just desserts! Well, toodle-ooh!"- aptly echoed in comically changeable expressions on the faces of Tiger and the other figures. A lively alternative to the more formalized likes of Suzanne Crowder Han's Rabbit's Judgment (1994), illustrated by Yumi Heo. (Picture book/folktale. 7-9)' Kirkus Reviews