Yummy

We’re big fans of Lucy Cousins’ character, Maisy Mouse, around here and so when I saw that Cousins was having book of fairy tales published, I thought this was one worth checking out!

Yummy is illustrated in classic Cousins style with bold brush strokes and colors. The style is very unique and distinctive and holds an almost strange allure for young eyes. Don’t get me wrong! I think Cousins illustrations are cute, charming and very cartoon-y. But from the young age of 6 months or so, my oldest son (now 3) has been fixated on Maisy (a good thing, in my opinion). When Yummy arrived on our doorstep, he was quite anxious to sit down and read it. Which we did. Right away!

The eight fairy tales included in this book are as follows: 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.

Now, I should first say that Cousins seems to be inclined towards the original versions of the stories. In Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf does have his head chopped off and in the Three Little Pigs, the wolf eats the first two brothers and the third pig eats the wolf (as a soup, of course). It took us aback a little to discover these things. We LOVE the story of Henny Penny (all those funny names!) but having the fox gobble up the whole lot of animals was interesting. (Actually, I reworded in the read aloud. How’s the three year old to know?)

I don’t have any issues with the original versions of the stories. They just deal with concepts we haven’t covered yet. So I had to be a bit crafty. The wolf having his head chopped off in Little Red Riding Hood wasn’t something I couldn’t exactly fudge though and thankfully this didn’t seem to disturbing to Bookworm1. (The picture isn’t bloody but the head has clearly been separated from the body by the woodsman’s axe.) All the same, don’t pick up this book expecting Maisy and her friends to be dancing around being cute and everything. It’s the dangerous world of fairy tales after all!

That all explained, I thought this book was cute and fun and can see how it would hold large appeal to lovers of fairy tales, fans of Lucy Cousins, young people who like bold colors and old people who like to snuggle up with the young ones, reading over their heads and shoulders and just enjoying life together.

On the whole, I’d have to give Yummy a thumbs up, with the caution that animals die. I don’t want to leave anyone feeling traumatized as a result of this book review!

Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know and Reading My Library).