Ada's latest is a continuation of the Hidden Forest Series of fairy-tale adventures, but this time, several editions of the Hidden Forest News newspaper replace the letters of the previous books. Subscribers follow many news stories, the most notable being the saga of the mysterious beanstalk and the related disappearance of Jack Blake. Op-ed pieces illustrate the controversy surrounding the beanstalk. Also newsworthy is the closing of Geppetto's toy shop, the beginning of Half-Chicken's journey to Mexico City (both International News) and the intended race between the Tortoise and the Hare (Sports). The "Back Page" lists the advertisements. Readers with a thorough grounding in fairy tales will laugh out loud at the allusions and double entendres that are the hallmark of Ada's writing. Tryon's busy full-color illustrations will keep readers' attention as they search for hidden details. The newspapers themselves are illustrated with small tongue-in-cheek black-and-whites. Teachers of fairy-tale units will love the subtle teaching of newspaper content and layout. A must for every fairy-tale collection. (Picture book. 6-9) Copyright ©2007, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Boy trades fam­ily cow for beans. Giant beanstalk grows. Jack Blake dis­ap­pears. Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Gepetto’s Toy Shop clos­ing. Extra! Extra! Read all about it. In sports today, we have cov­er­age of the race between the Tor­toise and the Hare. Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Lots of inter­est­ing sto­ries in these news­pa­pers!

Extra! Extra! By Alma Flor Ada (Atheneum, ages five to eight) gives all the scoops on fairy tale news as pre­sented in the news­pa­per. When the res­i­dents of the Hid­den For­est wake up and open their morn­ing papers, they are in for a sur­prise. An enor­mous beanstalk has mys­te­ri­ously sprouted out­side of Jack Blake’s house, Pinoc­chio and Half-Chicken have set out on great adven­tures, and the great race between Tor­toise and Hare fills the sports pages. Will they all find their happy end­ings? Hid­den For­est News has got the scoops. Full-color watercolor-and-ink illus­tra­tions are scat­tered among the newsprint-toned sheets. Writ­ten and laid out in news­pa­per for­mat, this new twist on famil­iar fairy tales is com­plete with fairy-tale ads, edi­to­ri­als, and a back page for children.

Unlike the first three books set in Hid­den For­est, this install­ment for­goes letter-writing (With Love, Lit­tle Red Hen, rev. 1/02), instead com­pris­ing three issues of the Hid­den For­est News (and a two-page extra edi­tion). The paper cov­ers local and inter­na­tional sto­ry­book head­lines as well as sports, com­mu­nity hap­pen­ings, and adver­tise­ments (tout­ing, for exam­ple, the masonry ser­vices of Pig Three). Above-the-fold news is dom­i­nated by two local sto­ries: the sud­den appear­ance of a giant beanstalk-like plant and con­cern about the fate of Jack Blake, who traded the fam­ily cow for some beans. As with the pre­vi­ous books, the fun is in fol­low­ing famil­iar char­ac­ters as they inter­act with one another and play out their well-known roles. The text-heavy news­pa­per for­mat doesn’t lend itself to story-hour read­ings, but there are plenty of clever details in both text and art for read­ers to enjoy on their own. Tryon’s black-and-white draw­ings enliven the arti­cles and fea­tures; full-page color illus­tra­tions between issues show, among other tableaux, Peter Rab­bit on his paper route. The con­cept isn’t new (e.g., Colin and Jacqui Hawkins Fairy­tale News, rev. 7–04), but for Hid­den For­est fans, Extra! Extra! Offers all the fairy-tale news that’s fit to print.

"Through articles, opinion pieces, and even sports and international pages, several issues of the Hidden Forest News provide the scoop on Jack and the Beanstalk and report on an Italian toymaker who has gone missing while searching for his puppet/son and a race between a hare and a tortoise. Headlines, columns, and black-and-white spot art tell Jack's tale from a variety of viewpoints. Things are livened up by occasional full-color pages painted in bright watercolors that show Hidden Forest residents producing, delivering, and reading the paper. Fans of the series will find their favorite characters in the articles, editorial bylines, and even the advertisements (Mr. Wolfy Lupus is running a summer camp for children). . ."