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The Old Woman who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle

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BfK No. 16 - September 1982

Cover Story
On our cover this issue we feature an illustration by Charles Keeping from Beowulf (OUP, 0 19 279770 0, £4.50), a new picture book version for 9-13s of the Anglo-Saxon hero tale. The story is retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland. We are most grateful to Oxford University Press for their help in using this illustration.

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The Old Woman who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle

Rumer Godden
 Mairi Hedderwick
(Macmillan Children's Books)
978-0333329658, RRP £3.50, Paperback
5-8 Infant/Junior
Buy "The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle (Picturemac)" on Amazon

The old tale of rags to riches and back again is given a new flavour in Rumer Godden's version, first published some ten years ago and now issued in a full-size paperback. Here, the main character is an old woman whose home is shaped like a vinegar bottle (the old fashioned stone variety) and who lives with Malt, her cat. Despite her hunger, she throws a fish, given her by some fishermen, back into the sea. The fish grants her wishes which become increasingly demanding till at last he tires of her avarice, tells her she is greedy and she is returned to her vinegar bottle. Mairi Hedderwick's watercolours have a Hebridean flavour and beautifully capture the humour of a text that is longish for a picture book, but which has a powerful holding quality.

Reviewer: 
Jill Bennett
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