#801 of 1001 · October 10, 2022

Today is the day of my eight hundredth book review. The time has truly flown by, and I’m grateful as always for those of you who read my work and leave such lovely comments. Have a look at Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent’s The Funny Little Woman. Within its pages lies a land of dark mystery and menace, of gods and demons and enchantment. A woman lives in a little shack, where she spends her days making rice dumplings. One day a dumpling falls through a crack in her floor, and she follows it down into a bizarre subterranean grotto filled with Jizo statues. There, a pack of wicked oni enslave her and force her to cook for them with a magic paddle that multiplies grains of rice with every stir of the pot. Soon enough, the little woman escapes and returns to the world above with the magic paddle, which she uses to churn out rice dumplings faster than ever before and earn a fortune. Mosel’s lively text is well matched by Lent’s vivid illustrations, especially of the monstrous oni and their eerie green huts. #funny #little #woman #rice #dumpling #dumplings #underground #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks