#546 of 1001 · January 28, 2022

What would you do when confronted by a fearsome supernatural entity? Perhaps you might display your great strength? Your indomitable courage? Your dazzling wit? The protagonist of Valerie Scho Carey and Johanna Westerman’s Maggie Mab and the Bogie Beast gets by on nothing but her genuine, unflagging positivity. A poor old woman on her way home one evening comes across an iron pot full of gold coins in the road. Delighted, she wraps it in her shawl and begins to drag it home, but soon looks again and sees that the pot has changed to a lump of silver. Still pleased, she continues down the road. Her prize mysteriously transforms again and again (to a lump of iron and then to a large stone), and each time she responds with enthusiasm and good cheer. Finally, the thing reveals its true nature—it is a bogey beast, a shapeshifting spirit resembling a large, spectral donkey. The ghostly apparition carries her over land and sea, but still not a word of complaint does she utter. As a reward, the bogey beast leaves her with three gold coins before departing for good. Carey retells this English folktale with verve and charm, while Westerman’s dynamic, cool-hued illustrations add a bevy of mischievous fairies lurking at ankle height, entirely unmentioned in the text. #beast #ghost #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #classicchildrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks