The Big Stew

PreS Grade 1-- A scary story, told in an understated, repetitive text. An apple-cheeked peasant couple get carried away while making a vegetable stew. In their enthusiasm to add more and more ingredients, the pair becomes transformed into grotesque, green-faced witches who madly add rats, bats, and other loathsome items. When a serpent-tongued, bat-winged creature emerges from the pot, they are returned to their senses and to their original appearances, and sit down to a perfect dinner. The action is conveyed vividly in the full-color crayon illustrations; the format and design expand from single-page drawings on a white background facing a page of text to double-page spreads as the ensuing mayhem intensifies. Although this may be frightening fare for some preschoolers, it will be satisfying sustenance for beginning readers with a taste for the macabre. --Starr LaTronica, North Berkeley Library, CA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.