Description:
Celebrity children's books don't have a great reputation--but this one deserves to be a big, big exception. You don't have to be a Shaquille O'Neal fan to enjoy his clever spins on familiar fairy tales. Shaq's adventures begin when he is about seven or eight and throws his lima beans out the window instead of eating them. Of course, a beanstalk grows, he climbs it, and he meets George the giant. After a few misunderstandings (George wants to eat Shaq), they come to an agreement. Shaq must deliver cookies to George's grandmother (setting the stage for a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood") and recover the hen that lays the golden basketballs (who ran away during Shaq's fight with the giant). In six dynamic, photograph-splashed tall tales, Shaq meets the three bears, encounters the billy goats Gruff, and finally makes it home. You can hear Shaq's voice in the telling ("...there before me stood the biggest Big Man I'd ever seen. I'll tell you, if this guy had skills, he would have done well in the NBA."), and he takes pains to include some advice for living ("I have always believed that fighting is the loser's way out."). All in all, these are terrific stories, told with skill and a big heart. The fact that they come from a 7-foot-tall physical genius should only make them more appealing. (Ages 4 to 10) --Richard Farr
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