#543 of 1001 · January 25, 2022

Have you ever wanted to transform into an animal? What if you gained that power…but lost the ability to change back? Just such a dilemma crops up in Lenny Hort and @frisohenstra’s The Tale of Caliph Stork. Caliph Chasid of Baghdad receives a peddler with a pack full of enchanting wares. He purchases a mysterious box of powder that promises to turn humans into animals and back again with the utterance of a simple magic word—unless they laugh while in animal form, which will cause them to forget the word entirely. However, when the Caliph and Mansor, his Grand Vizier, sample the powder in order to become storks, they cannot keep from laughing and are trapped as storks. Now they must unravel a plot orchestrated by the Caliph’s wicked cousin Kaschnur in order to retrieve the magic word and turn human once more. Hort’s amusing narrative is closely adapted from “The Caliph Stork”, a tale from Wilhelm Hauff’s German-language collection Tales from the Caravan, Inn, and Palace. Henstra contributes cheery, expressive ink-and-watercolor paintings. #animal #animals #transform #transformation #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks