THE FIREBIRD

While this earnest retelling details the magical gimmickry of the romantic Russian tale celebrated in Stravinsky's ballet, its humdrum style fails to capture the story's true magic, reducing it to a dungeons-and-dragons series of fortuitous adventures (```I have a magic talisman that will help us,' he said. `Now tell me about this wizard...Where is he now?' `Away on some mysterious errands,' she said''). Waldherr's oil paintings, ``applied over a golden acrylic underpainting,'' have a pleasant glow connoting the once-upon-a-time setting; they are skillfully composed, with grand, smoke-wreathed, many-headed dragons and gracefully painted details, such as flowing costumes and the Firebird's plumage. But the characters' gestures and expressions are as unimaginative as the text. As the only picture-book version in print, this may fill a need, though the story (in briefer form) is also included in Verdy's Of Swans, Sugarplums, and Satin Slippers (1991). (Folklore/Picture book. 5-10)