Four stories take the familiar faces of Gotham and transplant them into classic fairy tales.

In the first story (and the strongest one in my opinion), young Damian Wayne is stuck home sick and falls asleep while trying to read "Pinocchio," resulting in him dreaming of a "Waynocchio," a little wooden creature who dreams of being a real "boy wonder" one day who can fight crime alongside his doting parents.

The second story involves the GCPD interviewing "the usual suspects" after a jewel is stolen and each one of those telling a tale tall of their own, with riffs on Jack and the Beanstalk and more. With all the stories within the story, this one will appeal to readers who enjoy the Rashomon-style of storytelling.

The third story finds Alfred in a "topsy-turvy" world after he drinks some poisoned tea. This tale was pretty entertaining too, with all the Bat-universe characters taking on roles from Alice in Wonderland, which is particularly fun given how much Lewis Caroll's work inspired various Batman villains over the years.

In the final story, Batman travels alongside a mysterious snow queen to find a frozen man he needs to unearth and reanimate. This one was based on The Snow Queen, which is a fairytale I have no familiarity with so it was entirely lost on me. It was also a lot darker and more serious than the other stories, with the lovelorn Victor and Nora Fries as main characters.

Overall, this was a fun read. It definitely will go over well with older kids (and adults) who are familiar with the original fairy tales as well as a wide berth of Batman characters. The illustrations are really interesting, sort of cartoonish but more sketch-like and watercolor-based than animated. ( )