Leaping Beauty and Other Animal Fairy Tales 
By Gregory Maguire
Read by Gregory Maguire

     Gregory Maguire moves from mature-themed fairy tales for grown ups to age-appropriate fairy tales for the younger generation. The author may take cues from classic fairy tales, names from famous people in history, and like Disney, tries to reach a wider audience with his tongue-in-cheek humor, but his tales are contemporary, entertaining and original.

     Leaping Beauty is a tadpole that goes from kaboom! to wailing to leaping. The golden fox in Goldifox and the Three Chickens is unemployed and depressed. Hamster and Gerbil are baby beavers, who lose their home and gain a smelly stepmother. In So What and the Seven Giraffes, the king of the Baboons loses a perfect wife and gains an obnoxious son. Not to worry, the new stepmother knows what to do with him. Little Red Robin Hood wears a super hero costume, and his grandma lives in an apartment in the retirement village. The Three Little Penguins and the Big Bad Walrus has a momma penguin with sluggish blood, two baby penguins that like to eat fish and a younger one that likes to dress up and put on shows. The two wicked step-sisters vying for the glass pie plates in Cinder-Elephant are Mildew and Mayhem. And Rumplesnakeskin is about a sheep named Norma Jean with stars in her eyes and a famous King Stag who shoots movies. It’s all current, tongue-in-cheek humor that will have the kids in stitches.

     Gregory Maguire reads Leaping Beauty and Other Animal Fairy Tales. Maguire’s calm voice captures listeners’ attention. His added inflections when voicing the characters are priceless. One can almost picture the scenes. The combination of Maguire’s reading and the humor of these tales, give us one outrageously funny audio book. Reading age level for Leaping Beauty is listed as 9 - 12, but I guarantee a wider audience once you put the first CD in the player. Expect plenty of giggling, eye-rolling and leg-slapping with this one.