Monster Chefs

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JAN 20, 2014

In the monster king's castle, the sp cialit de la maison is ketchup and eyeballs, and the regent, a furry Cyclops with bird legs, is sick of it. He dispatches four ghoulishly goofy chefs to find him a new culinary delight. Three come back empty-handed, having been bamboozled by an ingredient ("Look around you," a sly desert snake tells one chef. "When you eat a ssssssnake you turn to sssssand"). But the fourth chef brings back a coolly confident human pastry chef, who introduces the king to cupcakes, and the rest is... well, a lot of cupcakes ("decorated with eyeballs, of course"). Brian Anderson (The Prince's New Pet), collaborating with his five-year-old son Liam, focuses his visual storytelling almost entirely on character, with much of the action taking place in highly distilled settings against white backgrounds. The narration is a winner from beginning to end: aurally redolent ("The king, spit seething from his massive mouth, glared down at them") and punctuated with lovely alliteration and delectable vocabulary, it's like a tasting course for the ear and a performer's dream. Ages 4 7.