Tom Thumb

The story of Tom Thumb is well-known: a poor, childless farmer and his wife feed a raggedy beggar (who is really Merlin), and he rewards them with a son the size of the husband's thumb. The farmer and his wife name their son Tom Thumb, and try to protect him from the perils of the world. Tom Thumb, however, gets into many dangerous situations--he is baked in a cake, eaten by a cow, stolen by a crow, swallowed by a giant and eventually imprisoned in a mouse trap. But with the help of the castle mice, Tom escapes and saves the kingdom from destruction. As a reward, King Arthur gives Tom all the gold he wants, to take back to his parents, and makes Tom the smallest Knight of the Round Table. Watson, who last illustrated James Dickey's Bronwen, the Traw, and the Shape Shifter , has woven--with occasional stiffness--several of Tom's familiar adventures into a single telling. That minor failing is compensated for by Watson's full-color, realistic artwork; in startling perspectives and several striking close-ups, he transports the reader fully into Tom's thumb-sized world. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)