The Three Bears: An Alphabet Book

The Three Bears ABC
by Grace Maccarone
illustrated by Hollie Hibbert
Albert Whitman, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

A is for Alphabet, but B is for Bears, and C is for what they needed their hot porridge to do (Cool)...which is why they went for a walk.

Yes, this clever retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is done in an ABC format! Very fun! And imagine the possibilities -- I'm sure there are young writers who would ably tackle the re-writing of other folk and fairy tales alphabetically.

The Market Bowl

The Market Bowl
by Jim Averbeck
Charlesbridge, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

Jim Averbeck (of In a Blue Room fame -- my review here) was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa.  Drawing on that experience, he has created an original folktale of Cameroon with a theme that will resonate with children (and, perhaps some adults, heh) who occasionally get in a hurry instead of taking all the steps to do something right.

In this story, Yoyo ignores the directions for making bitterleaf stew correctly. Luckily, she's creative enough to make things right in the end.

For a taste of Cameroon, there's a recipe for bitterleaf stew in the endmatter.

LADY HAHN AND HER SEVEN FRIENDS by Yumi Heo

LADY HAHN AND HER SEVEN FRIENDS
by Yumi Heo
Henry Holt, 2012

Who can resist a book with their name in the title?!

In this Korean folktale, Lady Hahn is a seamstress. Each of her sewing tools claims to be the most important. Lady Hahn overhears them and grows angry, claims to be more important than any of the tools, and throws them into a box. The tools feel mistreated and misunderstood, so they hide from Lady Hahn, who has a miserable time trying to sew without them the next day. In the end, they realize that they all need each other to get the job done.

This Lady Hahn is more likely my mom than me, though. The Lady Hahn who raised and clothed me with hand-sewn blue-ribbon-at-the-county-fair creations made on her little black Singer worked miracles with needle and thread and fabric. She made baby dresses with smocking down the front, recital dresses from purple crepe, baton twirling costumes of velvet with sequins hand-sewn on, a dirndl from a German pattern, and even BARBIE DOLL CLOTHES with buttons so tiny I'm not sure how she didn't go blind sewing them on!