Yummy Eight Favorite Fairy Tales by Lucy Cousins

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cousins, Lucy. Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2009. ISBN 9780763644741

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Great classic fairy tales are retold with bold illustrations. Favorites such as Little Read 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.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Lucy Cousins uses large bold print that helps bring out the text and make it easy to read. Simplistic black bold outlines of the characters against bright primary colors makes the characters pop out at you and your focus is on each picture and the text. Most have a white outline behind the black paint strokes that give the illusion of being cut and pasted onto the page. The lack of an illustrated background makes the characters the main focal point. Throughout the book Cousins uses onomatopoeia to attract the reader to the action taking place. The tales have villains and heroines but none feel overly threatening. The violence is downplayed due to the illustrations creating a more of a cartoon and young aged characters. The emotions of the characters are easily seen with simple lines defining their unique facial expressions. Animal characters are personified by wearing clothes or holding objects that people use. The mood of the book is light hearted by the expressions of the animals and people.





4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Keri Collins Lewis (Children's Literature) “Though Cousins uses simple language to tell the stories to a younger audience, she manages to convey the wit and wonder of these tales with an admirable economy of language.”
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2009 (Vol. 77, No. 13))
“…on the whole this lap-sized collection offers younger children an eye-opening cross-section of the far-from-innocuous world of folk literature.”
Carolyn Phelan (Booklist, Oct. 15, 2009 (Vol. 106, No. 4)) “Absolutely perfect for the youngest.”

Booklist *Starred Review*
5. CONNECTIONS
• Read other books by Lucy Cousins and compare and contrast her style of writing and illustrations. She has written and illustrated over 200 books and has won numerous honors for her work.
Maisy, Charley, and the wobbly tooth 2006. ISBN 9780763629045
Lucy Cousins' big book of nursery rhymes. 1998. ISBN 9780333722695
Maisy's snowy Christmas Eve 2003. ISBN 9780763621964
Hooray for fish! 2005. ISBN 9780763627416
Noah's ark 1993. ISBN 9781564022134
Za-Za's baby brother 1995. ISBN 9781564025821

• These stories would be great to create a Reader’s Theatre and students act out each part. Students could easily make a paper plate mask and say their parts.

• An engaging activity would be to collect a stand alone book of each of the fairy tales and compare and contrast the stories and illustrations. Students could then find out the meaning of an anthology that includes several fairy tales.

• Students could vote on which type of book they liked a book with one fairy tale or an anthology. They could also look at different anthologies with the same tales in them and compare and contrast those books.

Henny Penny 2006 Vivian French ; illustrated by Sophie Windham. ISBN 9781582347066
Little Red Riding Hood 2007 [written and illustrated by] Jerry Pinkney. ISBN 9780316013550
Little Red Riding Hood 2004 retold by Josephine Evetts-Secker & illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli. ISBN 9781841486215
3 tales retold and illustrated : The three little pigs, Goldilocks and the three bears, Three billy goats Gruff 2007 Edward Miller. ISBN 9780805079166
Three billy goats Gruff 2005 illustrated by Alison Edgson ISBN 9781904550440
The enormous turnip 2002 Alexei Tolstoy ; illustrated by Scott Goto. ISBN 9780152045845
Goldilocks and the three bears 2010 Emma Chichester Clark. ISBN 9780763646806
The three little pigs 2000 retold and illustrated by James Marshall. ISBN 9780448422886
The musicians of Bremen 2005 a Brothers Grimm tale retold and illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat. ISBN 9780763627584