The poisoned apple A fractured fairy tale

This "Snow White" reboot by Lambelet (Maria the Matador) borrows a princess, some dwarfs, and a poisoned apple from the fairy tale universe to tell a cautionary tale about well-laid plans. In illustrations with stylized, angular contours and whorls of grainy texture, a green-faced witch readies a poisoned apple for a princess she thinks is "getting a little too sweet for her own good." The witch prepares the apple carefully ("she only had enough for a single apple-poisoning spell"), and the princess takes it--so far, so good. But then, as the witch looks on, the princess passes the fruit to one of the dwarfs for lunch, who in turn donates it to a hungry deer family, and so on. Before long, the witch is crawling up a tree in her hat and cape to reclaim the shiny orb before meeting an appropriately ghastly end. The story's laughs come from watching catastrophe befall the evildoer as the innocent victim observes serenely from a safe place. Repetition moves the tale briskly along, and a highlighted refrain in scary-looking letters anticipates readaloud choruses. Ages 4--8. Agent: Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, Red Fox Literary. (Oct.)

A cheeky riff on "Snow White." A witch loathes a princess. There's no backstory provided, but "this particular princess was getting a little too sweet for her own good"--whatever that means to this witch--and the witch sets out to create a poisoned apple. But she can only collect enough ingredients to poison a single apple, so her plan has only one shot. The scheme starts out fine--hilariously, the witch just hands the apple directly to the princess, who accepts it without question--but it turns into an innocent apple-relay. Princess, dwarfs, deer, and a squirrel pass the apple along, each to the next, in artless generosity to hungry fellow creatures. When the squirrel scampers up a tree with the apple, the witch, desperate to avoid having "put in all that work for nothing," climbs up too--and suffers a fall that leads her, via crash-induced amnesia, into the very doom she'd planned for the princess. Above the narrative text, occasional speech bubbles contain pictures that function as the story's only dialogue, including one swear word (don't tell!). Everyone seems White; the witch is green-skinned with a stereotypical big nose and moles. The illustrations are clever and offbeat--a fawn rides atop its parent's back--and highlight hatchings, sharp points (including the witch's nose), and curves (including the princess's bodice: Whether by dress design or posture, her back always appears arched). Merry, with a bit of zest. (Picture book. 4-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.