HOW PRUDENCE PROOVIT PROVED THE TRUTH ABOUT FAIRY TALES

Paratore’s tale of a skeptical child who learns to believe founders on art from an illustrator who doesn’t seem to have read it. Raised to trust only in the empirical method, young Prudence pooh-poohs the folk tales her new teacher, “Miss Beatrix Bliss, F.G.” reads in class, as well as the admonitory notes and postcards she keeps receiving from the likes of “L.R. Hood,” and “Big B.W. and the Oinks.” Once she realizes that she’s alienated her friends, though, she changes her tune, proclaiming that fairy tales are real. Her proof? The “Fairy Tale Forest” postmarks on her mail—but in Petrosino’s cartoon scenes, those cards are plainly visible, and plainly have no postmarks (or mailing addresses, for that matter) at all. Prudence may believe, but readers won’t. (Picture book. 6-8)