YUMMY
by Lucy Cousins

Walker Books
AUS RRP $34.95
NZ RRP $39.99

Lucy Cousins has created a wonderful collection of nursery stories for very young readers, brightly and boldly illustrated and full of fun.

Best known for her award-winning Maisy books, Lucy's style is already familiar and loved by parents and children alike and Yummy will appeal to both.
In Yummy, Lucy moves away from the safety, comfort and friendliness of Maisy's world and offers children their first taste of drama and narrative. The book features Lucy's eight favourite nursery tories, including well-known tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and The Three Bears, and lesser known stories like Henny Penny and The Musicians of Bremen.

The book was a challenge for Lucy, not least because she had to find a way to present some rather nasty stories to a very young audience. Lucy says,
"These tales are traditionally very gory and shocking, so I was faced with finding a way to make them work for the Maisy age group. I approached it through using very simple text. By keeping it short I could help readers not to dwell. I kept the illustrations loose and gutsy to reflect the stories, giving them a bit more edge than the Maisy books. The illustrations themselves are very far from realism, and I think children can accept that this is a parallel universe and not their own. "

Yummy manages to combine traditional tales with contemporary story telling and illustration. With Maisy celebrating her 20th Anniversary in 2010, Lucy Cousins is set to reach a whole new generation of preschool children in the coming months.

"Cousins embraces all the primitive, enduring fears and desires that drive these stories, and then beckons readers to hop on a rollicking narrative roller coaster. Make room on the shelf. A new classic has arrived." Publishers Weekly

"Short but briskly savage versions of several classic tales. This lap-sized collection offers younger children an eye-opening cross-section of the far-from-innocuous world of folk literature." Kirkus

About Lucy Cousins
Lucy Cousins (born February 10, 1964), BA Honours in Graphic Design from Canterbury College, postgraduate degree from Royal College of Art, is an author-illustrator of children's books. She is best known for her books on Maisy Mouse.

She is a mother of four and lives in Hampshire, England.