Yummy by Lucy Cousins

Walker Books 2009. ISBN 9781406316216
Highly recommended. What a wonderful book filled with some of the most popular fairy stories: 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. Each story is told in sparse language but with the essential features of the tale left intact. The resulting 121 pages is a wonderful book which could be used when reading aloud to a group of children or for the individual to avidly examine.
I was thrilled to read through these familiar tales and to find that what had enthralled me as a child still remained in the story. The sound of the trip trap of the billy goats over the bridge is emphasised in bold print in the story and their clever manipulation of the troll is cleverly described. The third little pig, with a hugely smug look on his face, says, 'bye-bye wolf' as he falls into a pot of boiling water. None of these will scare the young reader or listener too much as Cousins' language and humorous drawing style is so child friendly.
The illustrations are typically Cousins' style: thick black strokes outlining the figures, filled in with vivid colours, with having vibrant greens, blues and yellow backgrounds. The expressions on the faces of Cousins characters are a riot and the humour will appeal to a young audience.
Winner of the Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of 2009, this is a title not to be missed.
Pat Pledger