Bog Myrtle
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Moonbeam Children's Book Award GOLD WINNER
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
From the acclaimed author of The Wolf Suit comes another weirdly hilarious, masterfully thought-provoking, and lushly painted early reader graphic novel.
Two sisters, one stubbornly cheerful (Beatrice) and one relentlessly grumpy (Magnolia), live in a drafty old house with a family of helpful spiders. When Beatrice is gifted magic yarn from a giant forest spider obsessed with sustainability named Bog Myrtle, she and the spiders set to work knitting up a perfectly warm sweater.
But greedy Magnolia sees only the opportunity for profit, and quickly converts the old house into a magic sweater factory. The exhausted spiders are driven to strike, and Bog Myrtle is not pleased . . .
Bog Myrtle is a witty modern folktale that touches on themes of capitalism, environmentalism, labor rights, and being a nice person.
“I adore this book as much as I adore empowered spiders, poker-faced narrators, and cooperative bookstores. It’s wry, whip-smart, and freaking gorgeous. Sid Sharp is a maestro of comic timing and subversion.” —Kyo Maclear, author of It Began With a Page
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sharp (The Wolf Suit) utilizes vibrantly colored folk art against dark backgrounds to introduce fair-skinned sisters Beatrice and Magnolia. While Beatrice, who wears a bright red dress, enjoyed "observing the local wildlife," bespectacled Magnolia liked "pulling the legs off of spiders." Despite being "so poor that they ate rats for breakfast," Beatrice endeavors to buy wool to knit a sweater for Magnolia. When the fabric store owner fails to see the value of Beatrice's currency—a stone, a twig, and a cicada shell—Beatrice returns them to the woods, where she meets the fearsome spider witch Bog Myrtle. Initially intending to turn Beatrice into a fly, Bog Myrtle is instead charmed by her appreciation of the forest; she spins material that Beatrice then knits into a sweater, which is seemingly impervious to wear and tear. Seeing the garment's value, Magnolia sets Beatrice and the household spiders to knit night and day. Though this droll graphic novel fairy tale becomes a nightmare for one sibling, it's a lighthearted and surreal take on evergreen themes surrounding the benefits of kindness that's more Brothers Grimm than classic Disney. Ages 6–11.
