Don't Eat That!

February 1, 2009
Gr 12-While the unnamed narrator is mowing the lawn, his mom warns him not to eat the fruit on their cherry tree. When he passes along the warning to his friends, the boys each share a story about forbidden foods. In Leon's creepy tale, a monster that dwells in a fig tree swallows the humans who try to eat the figs. The second story, told by the narrator, involves two brothers who wisely refuse to eat the bread offered to them by two witches-and thus avoid being turned into donkeys. Marcos's story, about a girl who eats Uncle Wolf's forbidden pancakes, has a cliff-hanger ending. Readers are encouraged to finish it themselves. The book concludes with a vague note about the origins of the tales-the first was inspired by an Australian legend (from the illustrations, it appears to have Aboriginal origins, though this is not mentioned in the text), and the second story is only identified as Eastern European. Although easy readers with scary stories are always popular, the drab book design and small black-and-white illustrations are not inviting. In addition, the framework of the cherry story feels forced. Better choices for beginning readers include Mary Ann Hoberman's "You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together" (Little, Brown, 2007) or Alvin Schwartz's classic "In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories" (HarperCollins, 1984)."Jackie Partch, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR"

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