Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Read This: Bone Soup

The monster love is showing no visible signs of waning anytime soon around here.  Zombies, vampires, witches, skeletons, oogley-boogly sorts of monsters are all equally adored and appreciated for their individual merits.  Blood-suckers, brains-cravers, bony or warty noses--we are equal-opportunity monster fans.    So you can see how this book--Bone Soup by Cambria Evans--would fit right into our little library.
I admit though, part of what attracted me to this book is that it is a spooky little twist on the classic Stone Soup story I grew up reading--except so much more fun when a town full of monsters are tricked into adding their most prized ingredients to the soup--you know, like spider eggs, toe nail clippings, stewed eyeballs and similar delicacies.
Of course, really, what is best about this book are the wonderful creepy-cute illustrations--just enough spook but still enough sweet to appeal to the under-10-set without creating nightmare-fodder.  I mean, I would happily give any one of the monsters in this book a hug--or even spend the night in their wonderfully realized homes with secret-cupboards, cobwebby cellars and cracked mirrors.  Or maybe even design a plushie inspired by one of the monsters--you know, something itty bitty that might be able to live in a matchbox or something?  Hmmm...
But really--check out Finnigin the skeleton with his gigantic eating mouth and his very tasty bone soup recipe.  Guaranteed to please and nourish.  Get a copy here--or from your local library.

7 comments:

Gail said...

That book looks cute. Has Beeper read "Wolves in the Walls"? It's by Neil Gaiman and it's got some great creepy-cute illustrations too.

Holly said...

Gail--we have read it. IN fact, I think we picked it up at a thrift store and it has been a favorite of his. It is a weird story--with fantastic illustrations--and pretty creepy as far as children's books go. I think we need to dig that one out this weekend to give it a pre-Halloween read...

Jenny Citino said...

I love this book and it became my daughter's favorite. So much in fact I had to hide it from her after we read it every night at bedtime for nearly two months, lol. Another one of our favorites is The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt and Tony DiTerlizzi. The illustations in both are awesome ... Happy Halloween!

Amanda Lee said...

Hi, I wanted to let you know that some of your blog content appears to be hijacked by this "fake" blog. I have found some of my own content has been hijacked by this fake blogger, and after looking around, have discovered it's just a lot of what appears to be stolen content. I submitted complaints to blogger via their "report abuse" form for my own content that I believe has been stolen. http://howtomakecraft.blogspot.com/2010/12/in-womans-day.html

Amanda Lee said...

Also, are these yours? http://howtomakecraft.blogspot.com/2010/12/matchbox-monsters.html
And this? http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com/2010/03/tutorial-and-pattern-recycled-mooshy.html
Or this? http://howtomakecraft.blogspot.com/2010/12/blonde-two-faced-friend-made-with.html
So sorry to be the bearer of bad news....

Holly said...

House Revivals: thank you for following up with me. It sucks and I submitted multiple complaints--also about the other blog I found some of my photos were linked to and posted on without attribution to me. Makes one wonder how much of your content is floating around there under someone else's name...

jeanmarie. said...

So cute! Thanks for sharing. My girls will love this. Also, sad to read in the comments about what is happening to you and others' blogs. How infuriating!