HULDA

by Carol Svendsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 1974

Harridan Hulda ""was pampered and spoiled every day/ The bold, hardy Vikings felt safer that way"" and by the time this gruesome goldilocks has repelled a bear, a toddler troll and his troll mother with her blue-in-the-face tantrums -- unleashing '""the most ear-splitting, spine-chilling scream/ The kind that could ripple a far-distant stream"" -- one is prepared to have big daddy troll teach her a lesson. But not for the ham-handed soppiness of his ""repaying in kind what to him was a pleasure/ By goodness to others the world's greatest treasure."" Hulda looks like derivative Disney (no accident -- both author and illustrator worked at Disney Studios); the rhymed couplets pile one cliche upon another in an innocence of embarrassment and founder under the necessity of explaining the gooey and totally improbable moral which transforms Hulda into that something ""rare"" -- ""a pleasant and soft-spoken lady."" Strident.

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1974

Categories: CHILDREN'S