Yummy by Lucy Cousins

So, Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales by Lucy Cousins from Candlewick Press came out this past August. I didn't learn about it for a few weeks and then I saw it was from Lucy Cousins and thus didn't put it high on my "learn about it" list, horribly prejudging it off the cover alone--I never even read the description. I enjoy Cousins' moneymaker Maisy, but I don't associate her with fairy tales and frankly forgot about the book, by adding it to the "someday" list.

Then the reviews started popping up, such as this one from Elizabeth Bird:

I think the lesson of the day here is that I haven't been giving Lucy Cousins enough credit. While you may not be immediately familiar with her name, you've probably run into Cousins' most famous creation, Maisy, at some point in your travels. Maisy is a mouse. Maisy is cute. Maisy is beloved by the 0-4 set. You haven't lived until you've worked a reference desk where desperate two-year-olds come up to you like knee high zombies demanding, in their too high voices, you entire section of Maisy-related literature. Now because Maisy is so cute and non-threatening I was not initially impressed when I first heard about Yummy. Ms. Cousins wants to try her hand at fairy tales? Fine. It'll probably be something along the lines of that Mary Engelbreit's Nursery Tales collection. An early child introduction to fairy tales but without any of the original violent aspects. A watered down version, I'm sure. Well slap me upside the head and call me Charlie because I could not have been more wrong. Yummy is, if anything, the veritable antithesis to Engelbreit. With a good-natured, downright jovial tone of voice, Lucy Cousins takes old-fashioned stories and makes them as gruesome and funny as she is able.

The review is considerably longer and viewable as a reader review on Amazon as well as the Review of the Day on School Library Journal.


Then Publishers Weekly gave it a star with this review:

Anyone expecting the gentleness of the Maisy books in Cousins's retellings of eight fairy tales is in for a whopper of a surprise—although the cheeky title does provide a tip-off. Who knew Cousins could depict a wolf decapitation (“Little Red Riding Hood”) or stewing (“The Three Little Pigs”) with such relish? Or that she'd find a creepiness factor in the Henny Penny story worthy of Flannery O'Connor? Cousins embraces all the primitive, enduring fears and desires that drive these stories, and then beckons readers to hop on a rollicking narrative roller coaster (“I'm going to gobble you up,” says a troll, threatening the biggest of the Billy Goats Gruff, who responds, “Then I'll bash you to bits”). There are thrills big and small on every color-saturated page: a Goldilocks who sports ginormous pigtails that seem to have an emotional life all their own; the hairy orange goat-eating troll with his neon green mani-pedi; a little red hen with enough feminine industriousness to rival Rosie the Riveter. Make room on the shelf. A new classic has arrived. Ages 3–up.

And here's part of a more literary review from The Times by Amanda Craig:

Fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs are hard-wired into us as human beings, so it’s no surprise to find out how old and universal they are: the husband-and-wife folklorists Iona and Peter Opie traced the story of Cinderella back a thousand years to China.

Youngsters can’t begin to learn these tales too early, for although they warn of fundamental terrors (being eaten or lost, for example), they also give us hope and courage. Ever since Gustave Doré’s radical illustrations for a series of children’s classics in the mid-1800s, it has been fashionable to emphasise the dark side. Happily there is no such shadow in Lucy Cousins’ collection, Yummy.

To sum up, the book contains eight tales all themed around eating or food, some more benign than others, including:

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
The Musicians of Bremen

Now the book is on my wish list. No, it's not for all kids or their parents, but many will enjoy it for that very reason. I personally like Cousins' deceptively simple illustrations for the tales (and for the Maisy books, too). They remind me of Byron Barton's Little Red Hen and The Three Bears which have always been some of the earliest versions of tales I've introduced to wee ones. (I've also loved his vehicles and dinosaurs books with my nephews, but that is really off topic.)

So if you prefer your fairy tales with a slightly more squeamish element but with lots of humor, this may be the book for you. After all, even Candlewick admits as much with its brief product description, one of the most tantalizing I've read in a while.

Beware — these fairy tales are not for the faint of heart! Maisy creator Lucy Cousins shifts gears to retell her favorites with vivid, rousing illustrations.

Eight classic stories take on new energy as Lucy Cousins ramps up her artwork. In this bold, funny, and unflinching collection, the beloved author-illustrator retains all the emotion and humor of the original fairy tales: the heroes are courageous, the villains are horrible, and the children are tasty. With her sly, simple language and vibrant illustrations, even the scariest fiends become the stuff of shared hilarity and shivery thrills.