MAGIC KINGDOMS.('The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales')

At the sand-logged, mildewy tail end of a beach vacation, four exhausted parents take two seven-year-olds to a rainy-day play, "The Fairy Tale Detective": the tales of the Three Bears and Hansel and Gretel and Red Riding Hood, retold as though in a film noir, complete with raincoated detectives and lynx-eyed blondes. Puzzled looks from the seven-year-olds: the kids, the startled parents realize, just don't know the fairy tales, don't know the material or the usual spirit in which they're told. At last, one parent whispers, "It's a parody, a kind of joke--you know, like the Mr. Peabody stories on the 'Bullwinkle' videos." Instant enlightenment crosses their features; oh, ...