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Summary
Summary
Acting Natural is a Meriwether Publishing publication.
Summary
Two people get carried away making stew and turn into witches.
Reviews (8)
School Library Journal Review
PreS Gr 1-- A scary story, told in an understated, repetitive text. An apple-cheeked peasant couple get carried away while making a vegetable stew. In their enthusiasm to add more and more ingredients, the pair becomes transformed into grotesque, green-faced witches who madly add rats, bats, and other loathsome items. When a serpent-tongued, bat-winged creature emerges from the pot, they are returned to their senses and to their original appearances, and sit down to a perfect dinner. The action is conveyed vividly in the full-color crayon illustrations; the format and design expand from single-page drawings on a white background facing a page of text to double-page spreads as the ensuing mayhem intensifies. Although this may be frightening fare for some preschoolers, it will be satisfying sustenance for beginning readers with a taste for the macabre. --Starr LaTronica, North Berkeley Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Using bold type and dramatically crayoned pictures, Shecter portrays two peasants intently adding a 'little of this; a little of that' into a big black caldron. The weirder the ingredients get, the more the two cooks begin to resemble witches, until the stew bubbles over into a pumpkin-headed creature. An amusing witch story. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
What you might eventually figure out (with a little help from the flap copy) is that a little boy is watching the demolition of a house, a sparrow is singing contrapuntal airs (""Sparrow's song/ is peach-colored mornings,/ in a big friendly kitchen. . .""); and when the house is totally leveled (taking Sparrow's nest too), the little boy builds the sparrow another house, a bird house, with (and here you do need the jacket's help) bits of the old one. But this is all so very tenuous--and at the same time so curiously emotionless--that it exists only as a schematic abstraction: neither in the full-color illustrations nor in the text does Shecter pull it together on any level. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ages 3-6. Today is stew day, so a man and a woman set out to prepare the perfect culinary delight. They begin with an eggplant and some tomatoes, then add "a little of this" and "a little of that." But the concoction still needs more. The two get carried away (including such delicacies as snakes, rats, bats, and frogs) and are gradually transformed into witches stirring a steaming cauldron. Finally, the brew explodes, returning the couple to their senses as well as their original human forms. They then toss in a few carrots and turnips to complete their wonderful meal. Shecter's bright pastel drawings, rich in oranges, greens, and black, lend an appropriately ghoulish air without becoming too frightening for the story-hour crowd. The large-type, predictable text should appeal to beginning readers as well. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1991)0060256095Kay Weisman
School Library Journal Review
PreS Gr 1-- A scary story, told in an understated, repetitive text. An apple-cheeked peasant couple get carried away while making a vegetable stew. In their enthusiasm to add more and more ingredients, the pair becomes transformed into grotesque, green-faced witches who madly add rats, bats, and other loathsome items. When a serpent-tongued, bat-winged creature emerges from the pot, they are returned to their senses and to their original appearances, and sit down to a perfect dinner. The action is conveyed vividly in the full-color crayon illustrations; the format and design expand from single-page drawings on a white background facing a page of text to double-page spreads as the ensuing mayhem intensifies. Although this may be frightening fare for some preschoolers, it will be satisfying sustenance for beginning readers with a taste for the macabre. --Starr LaTronica, North Berkeley Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Using bold type and dramatically crayoned pictures, Shecter portrays two peasants intently adding a 'little of this; a little of that' into a big black caldron. The weirder the ingredients get, the more the two cooks begin to resemble witches, until the stew bubbles over into a pumpkin-headed creature. An amusing witch story. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
What you might eventually figure out (with a little help from the flap copy) is that a little boy is watching the demolition of a house, a sparrow is singing contrapuntal airs (""Sparrow's song/ is peach-colored mornings,/ in a big friendly kitchen. . .""); and when the house is totally leveled (taking Sparrow's nest too), the little boy builds the sparrow another house, a bird house, with (and here you do need the jacket's help) bits of the old one. But this is all so very tenuous--and at the same time so curiously emotionless--that it exists only as a schematic abstraction: neither in the full-color illustrations nor in the text does Shecter pull it together on any level. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ages 3-6. Today is stew day, so a man and a woman set out to prepare the perfect culinary delight. They begin with an eggplant and some tomatoes, then add "a little of this" and "a little of that." But the concoction still needs more. The two get carried away (including such delicacies as snakes, rats, bats, and frogs) and are gradually transformed into witches stirring a steaming cauldron. Finally, the brew explodes, returning the couple to their senses as well as their original human forms. They then toss in a few carrots and turnips to complete their wonderful meal. Shecter's bright pastel drawings, rich in oranges, greens, and black, lend an appropriately ghoulish air without becoming too frightening for the story-hour crowd. The large-type, predictable text should appeal to beginning readers as well. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1991)0060256095Kay Weisman