THE ADVENTURES OF LITTLE MOUK
By
The adventures, first set down about 150 years ago in Germany, of a physically stunted Turkish youth, sent off to seek his fortune in his father's cut down clothes, whose luck takes several turns in all directions after he stumbles upon a pair of magic shoes and a magic walking stick. From tending an old woman's ungrateful cats Mouk goes into the King's service and (betrayed by jealous companions) the King's dungeon; spared the noose but exiled, Mouk then comes across a magic fig tree whose fruit causes monstrous growth in eaters' ears and noses, which becomes the instrument of his revenge on the king. There's no moral or nugget of folk wisdom to be found -- simply a tempting fruitcake stuffed with childlike imagery and attention-holding incident, decorated in kind by Monika Laimgruber's richly colored scenes, all patterned over with black dots that give the pages a showy, slightly Montresor-ish shimmer.