THE OLD WOMAN AND THE JAR OF UUMS

In the style of this team's The Old Woman and the Willy Nilly Man (1987), another sort of folk-tale story with the comic, wry humor of the southern Appalachians. A mysterious jar tricks the woman and Jackie McPhee, a mischievous boy she has summoned because he will throw rotten eggs, into using the sugar it contains; finding that they can now say nothing but ""Uum,"" they go to the Willy Nilly Man, as fascinatingly gruesome a character as ever. The solution to their problem is almost too easy (the man, frightened by Jackie hiding under a shawl, quickly reveals the cure); but the funny details in the telling and in Rounds' vigorous illustrations are enough to recommend this, especially to real aloud.