#401 of 1001 · September 5, 2021

Today brings my four-hundredth book review! I’m thrilled to have had all of you as readers and commenters along the way. To mark the occasion, here is a look at something dark, delicious, frightening, and funny: The Tooth Gnashing Witch by Tina Meroto and Maurizio A. C. Quarello. Three brothers disobey their mother’s warning of a cannibalistic witch and stray into the woods. As the hour grows late, the boys arrive at a house, and an old woman invites them inside for supper. The oldest and middle brothers declare that she can’t be the witch, but the youngest realizes that everything feels a bit off. And just why is there a cage in the corner? Meroto’s text, based on a traditional tale and translated from Spanish by Mark. W Heslop, creates excitement and suspense with a grim scenario. After placing her characters in grave danger, she allows the youngest boy to rescue his older brothers with wit and humor, fooling the witch with cleverly feigned innocence. Quarello’s character design embraces exaggeration and distortion. His witch is a magnetically grotesque figure, her unsettling features revealed gradually over the course of numerous pages. Her stark hair, nose, and chin all stretch out into thorny spikes. Her breasts hang pendulously downwards. Her metal teeth are pointed like those of a shark. Hair sprouts from her upper lip and nostrils. Her house, too, holds weird and sinister contents, from magical objects to eldritch creatures to a pile of her victims’ bones. #tooth #witch #boy #boys #brother #brothers #forest #woods #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks