Bat Brain Stew

by Mirko Gabler

When he follows the witch twins Gurgla and Blog home from school, Zack almost becomes the final ingredient in their alphabet soup.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 1992

Reviews

[Abigail]

When Gurgle and Blog are sent to school by their mother, the twin witches take to their education with enthusiasm, learning their alphabet in one day. Their assignment when they go home is to make alphabet soup, and they approach this with enthusiasm too, adding everything from ants to bagworm, dandruff to earwigs. When they get to Z they hit a snag, before realizing that they can add Zack, the schoolmate who followed them home and has been spying on them. Will they manage to capture him, or will he escape before becoming the last ingredient in their concoction...?

Originally published in hardcover as The Alphabet Soup, and then in paperback as Bat Brain Stew , this witchy picture-book was expatriate Czech author/illustrator Mirko Gabler's first published title. It pairs an imaginatively magical tale about two little witch children going to school and making a disturbingly disgusting brew with a classic alphabet story structure. The accompanying illustrations are colorful and accentuate both the grotesquerie and the sense of humor in the text. As someone who has an interest in witchy picture-books - they're a pet project of mine - I found this engaging, but also on the gross side of funny, for my taste, and fairly text-heavy, for a picture-book. I'd recommend it to older picture-book readers - six and seven years old, perhaps - who enjoy humorous witchy fare.

[Nancy]

This book tells the story of twins who live in the deep woods with their mother, a witch. She sends them to school and their first assignment is to make a bowl of alphabet soup. As they look for things to put in their cauldron, they go through the letters of the alphabet—an imaginative alphabet book.

[Tiah Keever]

ABC book with two little witches-great way to incorporate alphabet learning for Halloween. :)

[Anne Marie]

This is a perfect book to share with boys who'll especially relish all of the disgusting edible and non-edible ingredients the twins add to the soup.