Never Satisfied

April 30, 2018
In this careful-what-you-ask-for story based on a Chinese folktale, “The Stone-
cutter,” a frog named Stanley yearns to ditch the drudgery of his stonecutting job. When his idle wish to be a “businessman” is magically fulfilled, he realizes that he may be thinking too small. With subsequent wishes, he becomes a king, the sun, a big black rain cloud, and the wind, discovering that in each role, there’s always something bigger and more powerful than he is; even when he is the menacing cloud, emanating spiky, scary yellow thunderbolts, the wind can still blow him around. Finally, Stanley picks the most powerful thing he can think of: a stone. Horowitz’s (Humpty Dumpty Climbs Again) cut-paper art has a broad, sculptural quality, and while his characterizations aren’t subtle (Stanley is an obloid with long legs and a pair of ping-pong ball eyes perched on top), the pictures have a visual immediacy and narrative velocity. The pages breeze by until Stanley’s final transformation, which conveys a zenlike message about finding peace in one’s lot in life (in an author’s note, Horowitz also provides a personal anecdote). Ages 4–8.

May 15, 2018
The traditional Japanese folktale about a stonecutter who seeks ever greater prominence and power is retold in a modern, flippant version.Stanley the frog works hard as a stonecutter. Though good at his job, he acknowledges the difficulties of his vocation. One day, on his way home from the quarry, Stanley observes a rabbit in a business suit "just sipping tea" and wishes he could be doing the same. Magically transformed with suit and tie, Stanley finds himself in the tea shop and declares, "Oh yeah! Now, this is more like it!" Soon a "commotion" around the king and his procession outside the tea shop prompts a new wish from Stanley: to be the king. Now the monarch, he proclaims "This rules!...I could get used to this kind of life!" As the sun beats down on Stanley, he grows tired of being the king and decides that being the sun would be better. Each new wish produces a limited amount of happiness or prestige with subsequent wishes to become a black cloud, a gusty wind, and finally the great stone. But Stanley's satisfied only briefly, as the great stone must now contend with a new young stonecutter. Simple, bold, large cut-paper illustrations add to the absurdity, but overall this production with its implicit conclusion pales artistically when compared to Gerald McDermott's stylized papercuts and Demi's elegant paintings in their 1975 and 1995 versions, respectively.A light treatment of a familiar tale. (author's note) (Picture book/folktale. 5-7)

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