As in Larky Mavis
, Cole introduces an eccentric village misfit who emerges a heroine. The bedraggled lass lives on the streets, selling “stale buns and paper birds,” begging for food (“Sometimes she would starve”) and singing aloud, much to the displeasure of the villagers who alternately dub her Scraps-and-Smells, Skin-and-Bones or Sweets-and-Treats. The mayor, an impotently compassionate patriarch adorned in purple finery, won’t let them run her out of town, claiming, “The poor are always with us, and no good deed goes unrewarded.” When a foul ogre threatens to ravage the village if he isn’t given a maiden to wed, the residents gladly offer up the gawky young woman, whom they truss up in an ill-fitting gown and battered paper crown. The creature rejects her on sight, but she slyly persuades the townsfolk that the ogre wants both a dowry and a sharp sword. After the ogre swallows maiden, gold and jewels, and sword, the heroine slays the creature and outwits the villagers to strike off on her own, fully equipped with treasure. Cole speeds the action with his bustling ink-and-watercolor washes of the villagers, none of them who seems to pause, neither the well-dressed man who claps his hand over his purse when asked for help nor the plump lady with the disapproving expressions. In both text and art, Cole indicts the hypocritical villagers and delivers an original fairy tale with lingering emotional resonance. Ages 5-up. (Oct.)
