THE FOOL OF THE WORLD AND THE FLYING SHIP

His mother couldn't take time to see him on his way, but the Fool of the World found the flying ship and the companions whose powers would gain him the Czar's daughter.

Made visible in the rather raw colors of peasant decoration and with an air of good-humored raffishness, this boasts Brueghel-like panoramas of old Russia from the flying ship, laconic closeups of the Swift-goer, the Eater, the Drinker, etc. doing his thing. There's no show-off about Uri Shulevitz's illustrations; they serve the story and serve it up in character.

Altogether one of the most pungent of Old Peter's Russian Tales done to a turn.