Out walking with Wolf one day, Bear hears a joyful singing, and when he is informed that it is coming from the Bird King, he expresses a desire to see this king's palace. But his ridicule of the king's children, when he does see the royal nest, leads to trouble. Soon, the birds and the beasts are preparing for war. Who will win, the creatures of the air, or those of the land? And will Bear ever apologize for his unkind words...?

I can't say, all things considered, that this is one of my favorite selections from the Brothers Grimm. In fact, despite a childhood of poring over their tale collection, I have no early memories of it. Still, it is a moderately engaging story, and I certainly appreciated the (mostly) peaceful resolution of the crisis. As I said in my review of Chris Conover's retelling of this tale, stories of a war between the birds and beasts seem quite widespread, in the folklore of the world, and I always enjoy stumbling across new variants and tellings.

Robert Byrd - whose Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife was so enjoyable - provides colorful illustrations full of humor. I think I prefer the Conover edition (The Bear and the Kingbird), but this is definitely still worth a look, for fairy-tale lovers and Grimm devotees. ( )