Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales


Cousins, Lucy. 2009. Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales. Candlewick Press. 121 pages.

Lucy Cousins (perhaps best known for her Maisy books) brings us eight (familiar) tales in this bright and bold collection for young readers. The tales included are: Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Enormous Turnip, Henny Penny, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Pigs, and The Musicians of Bremen. (I only wish she'd chosen to include The Gingerbread Boy.)

Cousins' stories are a bit more violent than some contemporary retellings. She doesn't shy away from death and violence. (Though not each tale is violent. It's really just Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs that are. Her wolves are definitely in the big and bad category.)

The text of each story is simple and straightforward.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Little Red Riding Hood. Her mother asked her to take a basket of food through the woods to her grandmother, who was ill. Little Red Riding Hood had not gone far when she met a wolf.
What did I like best about this one? The illustrations! If you like Cousins' bright, bold, and colorful and larger-than-life (almost) illustrations. (Illustrations that command your attention right from the start.) Then you'll appreciate this collection of stories.

This is another impressive title by Candlewick Press.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

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