The Twelve Poodle Princesses

This is another re-telling of an old tale, 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses', and, again, the original human characters are transformed into animals - in this case, dogs. I feel this is less successful than Jig, Fig and Mrs Pig, however. It's so close to the very well-known original that a change of species seems pointless and the story is told in a complex style that loses the tone of the traditional without convincingly replacing it. The illustrations, too, seem to share the air of stiffness that seems inappropriate to the story. (For a delightful version of the original, see the Orchard version with Jane Ray's illustrations which is featured on our front cover - details on page 17. Ed.)