Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood, ill. Don Wood

May 15, 2023 by Betsy Bird Leave a Comment

You know what the problem is with Mother's Day picture books? Not enough of them are truly horrifying and scary, that's what. So I must credit listeners Lindsey Foat & Sara Hudson for coming up with today's suggestion. Certainly, Audrey and Don Wood have been on this podcast before. I recall having done King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, The Napping House and even The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear in the past. Now we tackle that universal problem of what to do when your child has been turned into camembert. In short, we talk about the ultimate mama bear story. Let's just say that this book passes the Bechdel-Wallace Test with flying colors and we really hope that someday there will be a Heckedy Peg 2: The Heckoning.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Good old Reading Rockets was good enough to find Don and Audrey Wood and interview them about the creation of many of their books, including this one. You may see their talk here:

What does it say about both Kate and myself that this house looks like a face? But you’ll have to listen to our podcast to hear what we think its voice would be (Note: Look at it. You know exactly what the voice would be).

Points to Don Wood for giving us some foreshadowing about where the helpful blackbird comes from early on.

That's some Ghostbuster era scariness going on with this image. Haunted Mansion worthy!!

Extra design points to Heckedy Peg for this killer (literally?) candleabra covered in wax.

Look at this quintessential mama bear moment. You turned my kids into porridge? Prepare to run, witch!!

Betsy Recommends: Mrs. Davis, now streaming on Peacock.

Kate Recommends: Queen Charlotte now streaming on Netflix

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

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