Judy Silverman (Children's Literature)
Eric Kimmel is a master storyteller. When he gives us his version of The Goose Girl, this old story takes on new life. Kimmel is aided by the marvelous drawings of Robert Sauber. The princess, Falada the talking horse, the evil serving maid, and the gullible prince are so real that they might jump off the page. This is an old fashioned story, and anyone who is offended by "married and lived happily ever after" will not like it. But those of us who love traditional fairy tales will love this one. For fairy-tale ages--the story may be a little difficult to read, but the use of language is beautiful. 1995, Holiday, $15.95. Ages 7 to 11.

Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
Veteran tale-teller Eric Kimmel retells the Grimms' fairy tale. An innocent young girl traveling to her marriage has her position usurped by a manipulative serving girl. Her kindness and honesty finally wins her the happy ending she deserves and she gets to marry the prince. Oils by Robert Sauber give a sense of flow and of classicism that benefit the story. 1995, Holiday House, $15.95. Ages 7 up.

Christine Heppermann (The Five Owls, January/February 1996 (Vol. 10, No. 3))
Though not as famous as Snow White or Cinderella, the princess in The Goose Girl has more in common with modern young women than these other Grimm heroines. No one comes to her rescue with a kiss or a slipper. To attain her happily-ever-after status, she has to stand up for herself. In Eric Kimmel's retelling of this provocative tale, he emphasizes the princess's sheltered upbringing, which has apparently occurred in a single-parent castle because no father is ever mentioned. "She had never heard a harsh word or seen a blow delivered in anger. She knew nothing of envy and hate." She is so virtuous and naive, in fact, that her rude awakening upon leaving home is inevitable and rather satisfying. On the road to her future husband, she carelessly loses her protective charm, a handkerchief spotted with three drops of her mother's blood, thus inviting her villainous maid to overpower her. The maid strips her of her fine clothes and talking horse, Falada; thus, when the two women ride through the gates of the kingdom, the prince takes the wrong one as his bride. Deep reds, golds, and greens and decorative borders lend a regal air to Sauber's otherwise unremarkable romantic painting. His blandly beautiful characters, like soap opera actors, overdo their emotions so that they engender more annoyance than sympathy. In a sense, this suits the tone of the text. Seeing the princess's alternating pained and wistful expressions, for example, just makes me want to throttle her for being so self-righteously passive and honoring her vow never to tell what the maid has done. Yet once she hits rock bottom, tending geese while an imposter robs her of her birthright, she shows signs of assertiveness. After the maid has Falada's head chopped off to keep him quiet, the princess bribes the butcher into nailing the head over the gate to the meadow, where, like Snow White's stepmother's mirror, it repeatedly reminds its mistress of the truth. The boy with whom she tends geese, entranced by her golden locks, tries to sneak a few strands for himself. But this time the princess defends what is rightfully hers. Every time the boy reaches for her hair, she commands the wind to distract him by blowing his hat away. Although the prince's father eventually suspects that the goose girl is the true princess, he needs to hear it from her lips. He suggests that she confess to the iron stove, so she can keep her word not to tell "a living soul" and he can secretly listen in. Then he tricks the maid into concocting her own punishment, which Kimmel happily does not sanitize: to be placed naked in a barrel lined with spikes and dragged through the streets by two white horses until dead. Just like the princess, she only gets what she asks for. 1995, Holiday House, 10 x 10 , 32 pages, $15.95. Ages 6 to 9.