Worth the Candle
Turk and Runt: A Thanksgiving Comedy (Paperback)
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Published: Atheneum, 09/01/2005
There are a flock of stories about turkeys who get spared at Thanksgiving. Some of these stories are good; some are clichéd; one stands out like a 35-pounder from the rest. That one is Turk and Runt.
The turkey parents at Wishbone Farm have an elder son who’s a real butterball and a younger one who’s scrawny. Anyone who has ever been the baby of the family (or anyone who has ever felt outshone) will identify the family dynamic: Turk is a golden tom, and Runt is easily ignored. As Thanksgiving nears, Pop and Mom become convinced that all the attention Turk is getting from visitors to the farm is appreciation for his talents in sports and the arts. Pop assumes that the football coach wants Turk to play in the big game. Mom assumes the ballet teacher wants Turk to dance the lead in Swan Lake. Runt intuits that these admirers of Turk’s sturdy drumsticks are just looking to feed a team or a cast. He scares the buyers away, much to his parents’ consternation.
It’s only when a little old widow comes to the farm that the oven mitt is on the other hand. Will anyone recognize the danger posed to Runt by someone with a petite appetite?
This is a laugh-till-the-cranberry-juice-comes-out-your-nose book. And the laughs starts well before the surprise ending, in which Runt’s whole family—heeding his warnings at last—comes together to anticipate that other turkey-eating holiday, Christmas.
Monster Goose (Paperback)
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Published: Sandpiper, 09/01/2005
Neil Gaiman (in Coraline) taught us all about the Other Mother, but Judy Sierra deserves the same kind of popularity for teaching us about the Other Mother Goose. Hers is the charming old Monster Goose, who types out nursery rhymes on a laptop.
They are nursery rhymes perfectly suited for newborns in the Addams Family, or for your children, assuming your little darlings have embraced the tropes of Halloween. (Kindergarten would seem to the sweet spot.) The collection has a ghoul, a zombie, assorted movie monsters, a troll, a boggart and many more, and all of them seem to keep pets: bats, snakes, wharf rats, electric eels (who in Davis’s hilarious illustrations wear hardhats with miner’s lamps), maggots and bathtub piranhas.
Parody is easy, but good parody is hard—and Sierra’s is simply tops. A folklorist, she fully knows the brilliance of the original Mother Goose and respects their cadence, and sometimes even their intentions, in translating them to ghoulish foolery. Her version of the Mockingbird Song could be sung with as much pleasure to a colicky baby as the original. (And it would perhaps better mirror the mood of a weary parent: “Hush, little monster, don’t you whine / Papa’s gonna give you to Frankenstein.”) And if you’re going to transform Mary (of little lamb fame) into someone who disrupts class with less innocence, can it get any better than this?
Mary has a vampire bat
His fur was black as night
He followed her to school one day
And promised not to bite.
She brought him out for show-and-tell;
The teacher screamed and ran.
And school was canceled for a week,
Just as Mary planned.
The Fairy-Tale Detectives (Paperback)
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Published: Harry N. Abrams, 04/01/2007
Here's our cockamamie critical theory about Michael Buckley and his growing series about the Sisters Grimm: It's all about duality.
First of all, these books fit squarely into two genres: fractured fairy tale and mystery. (Book-report writers are always coming to the store and telling us, "I have to review a book from X genre, but I really only like to read Y." What a friend these writers have in Buckley!)
Second, there are two kinds of people in the book's fictional town of Ferryport-the humans and the Everafters. (Sure, it's a formula-you're thinking Muggles and wizards, aren't you?-but it's a fun formula.)
Third, there are constrasting heroines. Sabrina, the elder, who's responsible, cautious, resourceful and diligent. And Daphne, who's venturesome, open-hearted, clever and patient. (This kind of sisterly yin and yang is traditional-who would Snow-White be without Rose-Red?-but Buckley is especially adept at not playing favorites. Even Sabrina and Daphne appreciate what each other brings to their detective work.) Not to mention all the supporting characters who have dual identities: The lupine Mr. Canis. Mayor Charming. Three porcine policemen. And Puck, a self-proclaimed Villain, who sometimes does something good.
But the books also reflect serious fairy-tale expertise and a devotion to classic children's literature. And there's his persistent sympathy, often expressed by Sabrina, for the Everafter characters, the storybook refugees exiled in Ferryport. Isn't that an exploration of free will?
It seems to us that there should be two kinds of people who would enjoy the Sisters Grimm-but we think everyone would.
Michael Buckley has written a great deal for television, and plenty of sitcom and cliffhanger tendencies are on display in the Sisters Grimm series.
