Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2-4. Adapting a story from Hurston's 1930s folklore collection, Every Tongue Got to Confess, 0 Thomas makes a fast, fun, but also scary tale more accessible to young readers, while Ringgold's paintings, with thick black lines and vibrant colors, reflect both the comic exaggeration and the shivery action. Three hideous witches, with "teeth far longer than their lips," eat a boy and girl's parents and then catch the kids. The children escape and climb a tall tree. "Block eye, chip! Block eye, chip!" chants the girl, and the witches are blinded as they chop at the tree. The boy calls his three hounds to help, but they are tied up at home, and Grandma, who would free them, is sound asleep. Finally a great snake slaps Grandma awake, and she comes to the rescue with the voracious dogs. A full-page painting of Hurston, accompanied by a note about her work collecting African American folklore, concludes. For more of Hurston's stories, suggest The Six Fools0 and Lies and Other Tall Tales0 (both 2005); read this one in a cozy room. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This suspenseful folk story, collected by Hurston (1861-1960) and adapted by Thomas (The Six Fools), finds three crones (with teeth "far longer than their lips") in pursuit of a brother and sister. After the children's grandmother leaves their woodland cabin for provisions, the sister says, "I smell witches." "Good ones or bad ones?" her brother asks. "Bad," she answers. The red, green and purple hags-depicted in Ringgold's (Tar Beach) homespun painting style-chase the siblings up a tree and commence to chop it down; while the girl repeats a conjuring spell, the boy calls for their three hound dogs and grandmother slowly wends her way home. Simultaneously nerve-wracking and comic, this joins the crop of African-American scary tales like Hamilton and Moser's Wee Winnie Witch's Skinny. Ages 6-10. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-"Three witches had already eaten a boy and girl's mother and father, so their grandmother took them to live with her far off in the woods." Grandmother goes for food and the witches come. "Those witches! Their teeth were far longer than their lips!" They send the children to fetch water in a sieve; the children end up in a tree, and the witches start to chop it down with broad axes. The girl sings "Block eye, chip!" and the wood chips fly back into the witches' eyes and blind them. The boy calls the dogs, but they are tied up at home. Grandma returns, but is so tired from her journey that she takes a nap. A snake wakes up the old woman, she looses the dogs, and all ends well. Thomas's adaptation of the tale is careful and clever-she doesn't leave out anything, and elaborates only by drawing engaging dialogue out of the more straightforward original narrative. Ringgold's naive-style paintings in dark rich hues suit the creepy story perfectly-boy, are those witches ugly! Her portrait of Hurston, laughing, at the end of the story, lends a lovely and reassuring visual coda. Short engaging notes add context and cite Hurston's original source. Read this aloud, and add it to any collection alongside the other recent Hurston adaptations for young audiences, including Mary E. Lyons's Roy Makes a Car (S & S, 2005), Christopher Myers's Lies and Other Tall Tales (HarperCollins, 2005), and Thomas's adaptation of The Six Fools (HarperCollins, 2006).-Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
"Three witches had already eaten a boy and girl's mother and father, so their grandmother took them to live with her far off in the woods." The cupboard bare, grandma leaves the children alone, and of course they fall into the clutches of the witches, marvelously depicted with red, green and purple skin; yellow, orange and blue hair; and exceedingly long teeth. The children escape to a tall tree, which the witches commence to chop down. The girl chants, "Block eye, chip!" sending wood into the witches' eyes, while the boy calls the hounds. Through the unexpected intervention of a large snake, grandma, who has fallen asleep all tuckered out from her trip to get food, wakes just in time, freeing the hounds who devour the hungry witches. Not for the faint-hearted, this tale's rich oral language begs to be read aloud, and will be welcomed by connoisseurs (of all ages) of the scary story. Includes adapter's and illustrator's notes and tributes to Hurston. (Picture book/folktale. 6-10) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
