SOAP! SOAP! DON'T FORGET THE SOAP!
An Appalachian Folktale
adapted by Tom Birdseye & illustrated by Andrew Glass
Plug Honeycut has ``such a poor memory some say he'd forget his own name,'' so when Mama sends him to the store he chants her instructions, over and over, until a bullfrog distracts him. An encounter with an old lady who's just slipped on a stone ``as slick as soap'' recalls the words; unfortunately, she takes exception to his happy recovery and dunks him, hollering, ``What a mess I've become, but now you're one, too!'' So it goes: Plug picks up the new line, which proves peculiarly insulting to the next person he meets, who inadvertently provides him with another, and so on until a lady shrieks, ``I ought to wash your mouth out with soap!'' just as he nears the store. Birdseye's brisk down-home retelling is colorful and comical; Glass's affectionately caricatured mountain folk cavort in sunny colored pencils and watercolor. A natural for reading aloud. (Folklore/Picture book. 5-10)