When apples, worms and roots become unbearably boring, Badger sets off to find more exciting food—but he can’t quite catch the main ingredients. Badger keeps searching until in frustration he shouts: “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!” Unfortunately, a nearby horse doesn’t think that is so funny. Keiko Kasza, a master at surprise twists on the last page, includes clever panels to show what happens to the animals who escape Badger’s grasp, allowing kids to be in on the satisfying way they unwittingly get back at their tormentor.
Badger looks at the apples, roots, and worms stored in his den, but he yearns for a fancy meal. He pursues, but narrowly misses, main ingredients for three potential dishes: mole taco, rat burger, and rabbit-banana split. During each chase, the smaller animals escape and dive into a nearby hole, which turns out to be their near-predator's den. When Badger returns to his den, he finds a note from his three visitors, thanking him for the feast of apples, roots, and worms. The pictures of cute critters in a taco shell, a bun, and an ice-cream dish are enough to create a new generation of vegetarians, but it's all in good fun. Kasza makes good use of an unusual technique in two dimensions, folding back the page on the scene featuring Badger to show what is happening simultaneously in his den. Confident, sometimes comical ink drawings are brightened with colorful washes. Not a must-have picture book but a good choice for larger collections. Carolyn Phelan
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Review
[A] wittily ironic tale. -Publishers Weekly
--This text refers to the Paperback edition. About the Author
Keiko Kasza lives in Bloomington, Indiana.