A dramatic, richly illustrated retelling of the classic tale from the Brothers Grimm about a fisherman's wife and her greed puts a new spin on the story by placing cats in the various roles and setting the tale against the backdrop of the Norwegian fjords. Kindergarten-Grade 3?A retelling of the Grimms' tale of a talking fish and of good fortune gone awry. This version is set in Norway, and all the characters, except the fish, are cats. Ragnar, a humble but content fisherman, hooks a fish with "scales like sapphires, eyes green as emeralds, and ruby red lips." In exchange for sparing its life, it promises to grant its captor any wish. Ragnar starts off modestly by asking for some lobsters at his wife's behest, but soon nothing will satisfy her greed short of being made queen of the country. When the fish refuses this outlandish request, the fisherman suggests a turn by their old abode on the Torva Fjord, and the couple soon rediscovers the simple pleasure of their earlier domestic life. The story ends somewhat facilely with the appearance of a stray kitten with emerald eyes and ruby red lips who bears a striking resemblance to the fish. The attractive, detailed illustrations, many full page, combine gouache, watercolor, and colored-pencil mediums. This book will be enjoyed by both listeners and independent readers. Although not a necessary purchase, this rendition of the familiar story is fun and appealing.?Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Ages 5^-8. Wells takes this classic Grimm tale to the fjords of Norway, where Ragnar the fisherman lives happily with his wife, Ulla, until the day he catches a fish that grants wishes. When Ragnar wishes for lobsters, he gets them in huge numbers, leading to the need for a bigger cooking pot, a bigger house, and so on. It isn't long before Ragnar and Ulla have so much they yearn for the happiness of their former simple life by the sea. Hubbard's watercolor-and-pencil illustrations are colorful and appealing. They present the characters as cats attired in Norwegian dress--a style that neither adds to nor detracts from the story. Use this clever retelling with other tales about wishes, such as "The Three Wishes"; it can certainly also be used in a story hour about cats. Helen Rosenberg Just as James Marshall could make the oldest of the stories new again, Wells (Bunny Money, 1997, etc.) takes this well-worn nugget and makes it shine. The characters, Ragnar and his wife, Ulla, are cats who live on love and homemade bread in the fjords of Norway. After Ragnar hooks a magical fish, his first wish is for lobster, and they rain down on his boat. Ulla muses that a little larger cooking pot would be useful, and so a peddler delivers it, ``already paid for,'' and Ulla and Ragnar throw a party for their neighbors. Ulla speculates that a larger kitchen, in a larger house, is required for the cooking pot. And so their wishes mount, until Ulla decides that she needs to become the queen of Norway, a wish the fish can't grant. The two cats pay a visit to their old neighborhood to cheer themselves, and Ulla sees her mistakes; they move back to their cottage, where the peddler delivers a kitten (also already paid for). Wells not only opens up the story to a younger audience, but imbues it with gentler, more human motives: Ulla isn't the screeching, greedy shrew of other versions, but a kind cat who succumbs to discontentment. Hubbard's lovely artwork is evocative, with rich landscapes and costumes, and full of great gestures and expressions. Come story hour, listeners will be cheering. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Used Book in Good Condition