The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine by Mark Twain and Philip Stead - OPTIONAL

The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine by Mark Twain and Philip Stead, 149 pages. Yearling (Random House Children’s Books), 2017. $10.

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: MS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

When Johnny is sent to sell his best friend, the chicken, for food to eat, he glumly goes to obey. His grandfather isn’t happy when Johnny comes back with blue seeds to plant instead, but those blue seeds set Johnny on a path of friendship and adventure.

Twain wrote notes on this bedtime story he told his daughters a long time ago in Paris, and Stead has taken those notes to mostly finish the tale. Stead pretends Twain is telling the story to him for the majority of the book and interrupts the story for made up conversations between himself and Twain. Overall, it’s an odd -- not bad, just very odd -- and nonsensical story with beautiful illustrations.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen