cover image Green Gourd

Green Gourd

C. W. Hunter. Putnam Publishing Group, $14.95 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-399-22278-8

This gleeful picture book marks the debut of both author and illustrator. An old woman is forced to run for her life when she breaks a local taboo: ``Never pull a green gourd afore it's ripe, or it'll witch ye sure.'' She plucks one, however, and it takes off after her--animated with a Satanic frenzy. In colloquial, down-home argot Hunter recounts the woman's pursuit by--and escape from--the maniacal vegetable. ``A witchy green gourd's on my heels, and it's goin' to fumpstet me sure!'' cries the woman, running for cover with the gourd in hot pursuit. Griego's cartoony illustrations give the book a Disney look; they are most effective when portraying the gourd itself, which whizzes through the air, hell-bent on destruction. The atmospheric tale ends a bit too abruptly, however, when a neighbor boy vanquishes the gourd simply by sitting on it and squashing it. Thanks to Hunter's artful telling, we have come to expect the vindictive vegetable to put up more of a fight. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)