How To Cook Children: A Grisly Recipe Book

How to Cook Children: A Grisly Recipe Book

From School Library Journal Grade 3-6-Recipes from witches, all with children as a main ingredient. A Japanese witch ("The Dishonourable Lady Soo-Shi") offers "Seared Tina in Boy Sauce on a Bed of Fragrant Lice." How do you prepare Tina for this dish? Tie her to a tree (by a riverbank) with ribbons, float some blossoms in the water, and then hack her up with a cleaver. This type of violence (not to mention cultural stereotyping) abounds, and certain kids will just love it. The Spanish witch is fiery and passionate, the Scot is dour, and one of the U.S. witches is a redneck, overweight biker. Some recipes are really funny; concerning Consuela del Diablo, "Last time someone drank her 'love potion' he ended up falling in love with three donkeys, a clam and his own moustache." Others are easy shots, like directions to add various types of "wee wee" to the concoctions. The many small and large humorous pictures throughout are prominent against the white pages. Stimpson has worked with Walt Disney Feature Animation, and his slick, colorful style shows it. An advertising section adds to the fun: anyone want to buy a HAG 3000 SuperOven, offered by Hansel and Gretel Industries? Overall, this is a rich dish that is likely to drive adults crazy, but read aloud by some children ad nauseam. If you work with those children, swallow hard, buy the book, and remind library catalogers NOT to classify it in the 641s.-Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL END Every dish in this very unique cookbook has one thing in common: the main ingredient