It’s not about Dick and Jane

We’ve come a long way since those easy readers about Dick and Jane and their dog, Spot. These days, books written for children just learning to read have a lot more to offer than the equivalent of “See Spot run!”

Toronto’s Veronika Martenova Charles, for example, created an Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales series in 2010 that gave youngsters five slim volumes based on fairy and folk tales from around the world. The approach was simple enough: three friends (Lily, Jake and Ben) entertained each other with stories, one offering a relatively wellknown version and the other two chiming in with tales that differed slightly but clearly had elements in common. Charles’s texts were simple and straightforward, but the stories flowed smoothly — the tales themselves set in a large, easy-to-read serif font, while the contemporary bits involving the three friends appeared in a sans-serif font and served as segues. All five books were generously illustrated with the deft, appealing black-andwhite art of David Parkins. (Although I cringed at the somewhat obvious attempt to be inclusive: Lily is black, Ben appears to be of Asian extraction and Jake is depicted as a chubby white boy.)

This year, publisher Tundra Books has added five more titles to the series: It’s Not About the Ball!, It’s Not About the Tiny Girl!, It’s Not About the Diamonds!, It’s Not About the Straw! and It’s Not About the Beanstalk! Based on such traditional and much-loved stories as The Frog Prince, Thumbelina, Diamonds and Toads, Rumpelstiltskin, and Jack and the Beanstalk, each of these paperbacks offer three versions of the tale; at the end of each book, an author’s note adds information about the stories.

It’s Not About the Ball!, for example, tells readers that the popular version of The Frog Prince attributed to the Brothers Grimm involves a princess who “drops a golden ball into the water and a frog retrieves it in return for a promise.” Charles then explains that The Promise, the story told by Jake, is “drawn from several versions of a folk tale from Scotland … that can be traced back to 1548. Similar versions of the story were also found in Germany.” The Frog Boy, told by Ben, is based on a tale from Vietnam; The Singing Frog, told by Lily, has its origins in a South American fairy tale.

Early readers, of necessity, feature texts with simple words and sentence structure. But they should also tell stories that make the reader want to keep reading. “See Spot run” doesn’t pack the same punch as a talking frog who urges a princess to “Slice my skin, cut it, cut it!” so he can be released from a wizard’s spell.

Ages 5 to 8 It’s Not About the Ball! / ...the Tin y Girl! / ...the Diamon ds! / ...the Straw! / ...the Bean stalk! By Veronika Martenova Charles Illustrated by David Parkins Tundra Books 64 pages, $7.99 each