The stories are written in a variety of voices, but the prose is always spare and hard, not a word wasted, not a word out of place And if, by the time I have grandchildren, there are still public libraries, I trust that they will find this book in one, and take it to a quiet corner and read. Neil Gaiman
the great collections of British folk-tales, such as this one, should be treated in two ways: first, they should be bound in gold and brought out on special occasions as national treasures; and second, they should be printed in editions of hundreds of thousands, at the public expense, and given away free to every young teacher and every new parent. Philip Pullman
