I love Joan Aiken's books, some more than others, and this collection of goofy short stories was one of the others. As a child I was rather indifferent to the bizarre strangeness of these fairy tales and preferred the serious, melancholy shorts in her other collection, All But a Few. But I now have to revise my opinion of this particular volume, after reading it aloud to the kids - they absolutely LOVED it, shrieking with laughter at every absurdity. I now see that this collection was meant to be read aloud and as such is a rounding success.
