Princess Furball

Huck deftly retells a variant of the Cinderella story in her first book for children. A golden-haired princess, distressed when her father betroths her to an ogre, runs away, disguising herself in a coat made of a thousand furs. Princess Furball works as a ``servant to the servants'' in the house of a young king until, like Perrault's Cinderella, she dazzles the court at the king's ball. The complex unraveling of her mysterious identity involves three walnuts, three gold treasures, three ball gowns--and the seasonings for a delectable soup with which the princess fools the king. Huck's princess is not only beautiful but clever, and the solutions to her problems are of her own devising. Lobel's elegantly composed paintings, in vivid Renaissance colors, are as lovely as the princess herself. Ages 4-7. (Sept.)