#330 of 1001 · June 26, 2021

Sometimes a persistently terrible environment can force one to acclimate, to become desensitized to the wrongness of the world. Not so the eponymous heroine of David Lucas’s Nutmeg, who grows ever more frustrated with the bizarre, junk-strewn wasteland where she lives with only her Uncle Nicodemus and Cousin Nesbitt for company. The three spend their days doing little to nothing at all, consigned to eating cardboard for breakfast, string for lunch, and sawdust for supper. One day, something unexpected happens: Nutmeg finds a bottle floating in the polluted water and releases a genie, who grants her three wishes. Weary of her monotonous routine, she requests something different for each meal of the day, and the genie provides her with a sentient spoon that prepares food all by itself. But the spoon has a mind of its own, and proceeds to stir and stir so vigorously that everything in the kitchen, in the house, in the entire world is soon caught up in a cosmic vortex. Where Nutmeg will land next is anybody’s guess, but she has certainly left her dull existence behind her. Lucas’s writing, replete with expressively italicized words, demands an animated reading voice, while his eye-popping cartoon-style illustrations offer a plethora of bright and merry details. #junk #breakfast #lunch #supper #spoon #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks