OLD MOTHER HUBBARD AND HER WONDERFUL DOG

Marshall doesn't retell this old favorite, as he did in his revisionary nursery tales (Red Riding Hood, 1987); he uses it as springboard for a series of outrageously risible illustrations of the jowly old lady and her jowly pet frequenting imaginatively conceived shops or cozily at home, reading The Daily Drool or engaged in other industrious or self-indulgent pursuits. Predictably unpredictable and genuinely funny; and, of course, the art here is not only wickedly satirical but done with exceeding skill. (Folklore/Picture book. 4+)