by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 07, 2010

She's the world's most exciting teacher - at least, according to "Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook." She's got red hair, and she's wearing a black leather jacket with a button for "The Clash". You can tell the young lady is a teacher, because she's wearing red horn-rimmed eyeglasses. But even her glasses have little yellow lightning bolts on them!

And she's carrying a mysterious book...

It's a magical book which creates a funny adventure for the children - while suggesting that reading can be fun. When Miss Smith says "It's story time," the characters in her storybook actually come to life in the classroom. First there's a black-bearded pirate with a wooden leg and a red parrot on his shoulder. Soon the desks of the grade school have been transported to his ship, where a student name Zack runs his fingers through a chest of golden doubloons.

Michael Garland wrote the book's story, but he also provides its illustrations. They're slick and colorful, showing the fantasy world overtaking the boring classroom - and eventually, the whole school! It must've been fun for Garland to draw fairy tales coming to life. But because he's also the story's author, he even gets to pick the fairy tales!

Little Red Riding Hood is startled by a wolf in the woods - and behind a tree, the children watch, led by Miss Smith with her magical book. But when Miss Smith is late for class, the school's principal takes her place. Soon it's the principal that's reading about a knight fighting a fire-breathing dragon. And when the dragon comes to life in their classroom, the principal abandons the book and flees for help!

It's a very entertaining story, but the book's climax comes when the students start reading their own favorite fairy tales - only to discover every character appearing with them in the school's classrom. There's Goldielocks with her three bears, plus the Mad Hatter with Alice in Wonderland. There's a cheshire cat, a tin woodman, a white rabbit, and Robin Hood - and soon that classroom is awfully crowded. Zack knows the solution, but no one listens to him.

"Why don't you finish the stories?"

But there's one problem: the character's don't want to go back in the book! Out on the sidewalk, Miss Smith rushes to save the day. (She passes a witch on a broom, plus the headless horseman - and the sheep of Little Bo Peep.) But it's a spectacular two-page drawing, filled with shout-outs to many more fairy tales. There's a beanstalk, the three little pigs, and a princess - and Humpty Dumpty balanced on a ledge.

And then Miss Smith enters the door with a scowl, letting all the characters in the room know one thing:  she meant business.

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