BAD BOYS GET COOKIE!
by Margie Palatini & illustrated by Henry Cole
Palatini riffs on the Gingerbread Man and Hansel and Gretel stories in this return of her two bad boy wolves. Willy and Wally, aching to satisfy their sweet tooth, chase after a smart little cookie that has escaped from the bakery (“I’m afraid I added too much spice,” moans the baker). Needless to say, Willy and Wally, despite being wolves, are outfoxed by the demon cookie even when they are dressed as Hansel and Gretel. There is a lot of good badinage between Willy and Wally, with their knowing exchanges, but some of that humor may be lost on younger readers, who may also be confused as to why honey—laid out as a trap by the wolves—would make the cookie slip and slide. Yet these lapses are smoothed over by Cole’s merry, slapstick art. Never has a runaway cookie been so annoying looking, and never did Hansel and Gretel observe with such longing the witch’s derriere. Yes, they are “Bad. Bad. Really, really bad” in all senses of the word. (Picture book. 4-7)