Having never read Brooke's A Telling of the Tale, I cannot say whether or not this one was a disappointing sequel, but on its own, I thought this collection of short stories was wonderful! This was the first set of stories I read that took the traditional fairy tale and turned it completely upside-down. I absolutely love this book.

Three of the four stories contain reworkings of Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and the Frog Prince. In Beauty and the Beast, Beauty is a truly hideous-looking woman with a gentle, loving heart, and the Beast is a stunningly beautiful man with a heart of ice. The ending is definitely not traditional. I was almost disappointed with the ending, but it fits:0)

The story of the Frog Prince takes place years after the princess kissed the frog and turned him into a prince. Now, married and middle-aged, the magic seems to have gone out of the relationship. The queen wishes her husband were a frog again, and the king wants desperately to tell his wife he loves her, but is too busy, too harried, and too afraid to say anything. The plan that the king comes up with is definitely original! A winner! Once again, the ending is far from a conventional fairy-tale's.

The third story, a remake of Sleeping Beauty, also takes place long after the princess is released from her slumbers with a kiss. Her husband long dead and the princess herself settled into almost-middle age, the princess opens her door one day to find a middle-aged prince standing on the doorstep, determined to kiss her. What ensues is a very funny story, and leads into the last tale, which is so different you must read it for yourself. Enjoy!

I am in the habit of previewing my 10-year-old's reading, because he can read beyond his grade level, and I don't want him getting into inappropriate material. As I read this book, I chuckled and chuckled -- and then listened to him squeal and hoot with laughter as he read it!
There's more to this book than humor, though. It gets at some pretty profound concepts -- the purposes and functions of language, the origin of grammar, the development of religion and of politics, and the birth of written language. Not bad for a piece of witty juvenile literature, huh?
I've already checked out William J. Brooke's other books from the library, and I'm looking forward to reading them with my son. I sincerely hope that Mr. Brooke follows _A is for AARRGH!_ with other books in a similar vein.

I really liked this book because it was exciting and left me cliff hanging every time I put it down. My favorite part was when Drog came back with "Greenbacks" and nobody really knew what they were. The reason I gave this five stars is because it had a great plot. Also, I liked that they had villages and it was set back in the time of Cave Men. I would reccommend this book to anyone who enjoys action and adventure. Reviewed by Sam McEntee

I like this book because it was realy funny,in the first paragraph mog threw a rock to og from 25.000 miles away and he still mist hem that was realy funy.
The best psrt of the book was wen mog deliverd the messages to the people that weare realy important and that they needed to know wat was going on.The worst part of the book was wen they send mog to do things that he did not wa net to do
Well ilike the book because the author wrote the book reelly god that i could read it thats why i like the book .

It was terrible

The story is realistic and cleverly told and the characters are distinct and clearly defined, and also realistic. The character of the girl - daring, unscrupulous, and somehow very intelligent - was especially interesting. Definitely worth trying.

William J. Brooke is a master of modern storytelling. He recreates a sense of connection, previously provided by bards and communal poets, which our society has lost. "Teller of Tales" is wonderful, entertaining, and moving in both its overstory and the rewritten fables it portrays with such humour and clarity. I most sincerely recommend this, and the other two works in the same series, "Untold Tales" and "A Telling of the Tales" as three of the richest, most lasting books you'll find on today's bookshelf of notable children's works.

A Brush With Magic is an amusing but rather slight expansion on a Chinese myth. Liang, the protagonist, is found as a child on the river with a brush as his only possession. However, this is no ordinary brush-- whatever Liang paints with the brush comes to life.

During his childhood, he meets a court artist who has a picture of two girls, one brushing the other's hair. Thinking the one with the kind face is the princess, Liang is seized with a desire to go to court and wed the princess.

In the interim, he meets a runaway girl called Lotus who is escaping her impending marriage (as the 100th wife) with the emperor who is naturally greedy and fat and cruel. Liang finds that, to his shock, the princess is beautiful, but cruel as well.

In his attempt to rescue Lotus from the emperor's evil clutches, Liang is forced to realize that the brush does not contain the magic-- the magic comes from himself.

A Brush with Magic certainly has its moments, and has any number of imaginative touches (such as Monk-Li, one of his creations with the face of a man, the body of a monkey and an unsatiable appetite for bananas), the characters were undeveloped and the whole story somewhat predictable. Enjoyable as a quick yarn, but move on to Lloyd Alexander's The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen for a more satisfying Chinese mythology-based story.