Awards

• Booklist Starred Review – 9/15/87
• Irma Simonton Black Book Award – 1987
• Nevada Young Readers Award – 1989 & 1990
• Association for Indiana Media Educators
• Hoosier Award – 1992
• Christopher Award – 1988
• NCTE Notable children’s Trade Book – 1987
• ABC Pick of the List
• Abc Special Recognition – 1988
• Indiana Young Readers Award – 1992
• Young Readers Award – 1988 – 1989

Reviews

Booklist 9/15/87 Starred Review

“Ages 4-7. The story, taken from a sixteenth century game still played in England today, describes how seven children named for the days of the week are promised gifts by their mother, who is going to the market. The children, in turn, promise not to open the door but are duped by a witch, who turns them into delicious morsels to eat. The distraught mother tracks them to the witch’s cottage and is offered a chance to save her family, but only if she can identify each child by name.

It seems impossible, but matching the children’s desired gifts with their enchanted states (“pie wants knife, That’s Tuesday. Milk wants pitcher. That’s Wednesday”), they are saved. Don Wood’s masterful oil paintings are suffused with glowing colors of the English countryside contrasting well with the dark grays and browns that surround the witch’s environs, and his portraits of the children, their mother, and the crone are sure and true. The inherent drama of the story, combined with the haunting images the art provides, gives the picture book a timeless quality. JC”