MRS. BIDDLEBOX

Features pinched, frizzy hair floating like a cloud of concentrated gloom overhead, entirely surrounded by great, dark angry swirls of color, old Mrs. Biddlebox has definitely gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. But rather than just grump around, she marches off to gather up dirt and shadows, twirl the fog around her broomstick like oversized cobwebs, roll up the lowering sky, stir in a sunbeam, pour it all into a pan, and bake the day into a delicious cake. Smith’s posthumous text displays the animated rhythm and rhyme of her debut, When The Moon Fell Down; Frazee (Everywhere Babies, 2001, etc.) gets not only Mrs. Biddlebox’s evil mood just right, but her ultimate “witchety delight” too as, with a full belly, she throws open her window (a door in the verse, but let’s not quibble) to a moonlit night aswirl, this time, with flower-like stars. If Betsy Everitt’s Mean Soup (1992) isn’t filling enough, dish up this tempting dessert. (Picture book. 6-8)