by Nancy Gow (2010)
This book offers a nice respite from the beautiful and desirable Disney princes and princesses, and tells the story of two characters who repulse possible marriage partners because of their unnaturally large features. The entire book rhymes, although sometimes in an unwieldy fashion, and is reminiscent of classic fairy tales for this reason. The lush, colorful, whimsical artwork by Stephen Costanza reminds me of classic fairy tale imagery, as well. The message in Ten Big Toes and a Prince's Nose is a frequently repeated one and is nothing novel, but Gow's word choice is quite endearing and definitely more modern ("So if, one fine day, you should happen to meet a guy with a schnoz and a gal with big feet, don't jump to conclusions, try not to be mean...for you might have bumped into a king and a queen!).
I may have this available in my class if we were doing a unit on fairy tales and fractured fairy tales. I probably would not choose to read this book as a class, because although the book rhymes the patterns are often cumbersome. I'm sure kids would enjoy some of the funny stanzas, though, and they may like to read it on their own. There are better books out there with similar messages (like Zero, for example), so I would probably only use this book to teach about different kinds of fairy tales and their modern interpretations.
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