BEASTLY BANQUET

by Peggy Munsterberg ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1997

A poetic take on a popular subject: what animals like to eat. Short, rhymed verse in simple couplets, triplets, and quatrains describes the eating habits of such animals as swans, bats, whales, gulls, and moles. The objects of each animal's appetite are made to sound as tasty as human delicacies, from juicy slugs to fat flies. The occasionally instructional, often droll poems provide a brief glimpse of the food chain in nature. Gouache and watercolor illustrations are a curious mixture of realistic scenes in nature and anthropomorphized creatures in dresses, ties, and formal attire: Spider has a human face, sleeps on a hammock, and hangs her tiny dresses from a clothesline strung in the bend of a lamp. The more fanciful compositions provide constant jocular juxtaposition with eaters of the human realm, and demonstrate wit and whim unfortunately absent from other scenes.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1997

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Dial

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1996

Categories: CHILDREN'S