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Summary
Summary
After she pulls a baby from the mud, Zilla takes care of him and watchs him grow, all the while worrying that she will lose him back to the Little Muddy River.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2Zilla Sasparilla stumbles into the muck of the Little Muddy River and loses her shoe. When she tries to retrieve it, she pulls out an infant. While very pleased to have the mud baby, she frets right away that the heat from her stove will dry it out and crack it. She seeks the sage advice of Granny Vi, who tells her if she first washes the baby in milk, all will be well. When Cinnamon reaches school age, Zilla begins to worry that he will be stolen back by the river, and decides to move. As they reach its bank, the mule refuses to budge, so Zilla tries to prod it along and slips into the Little Muddy. Cinnamon jumps in after her, and when Zilla sees the river isn't a threat to him, she contentedly heads back home. Both children and adults will be able to relate, from different points of view, to the worry and angst Zilla experiences as a mother. Harvey's watercolor-and-pencil illustrations, many of them full page, are expressive and blend nicely with the fairly lengthy text. A heartwarming additional purchase, especially where original fairy tales are popular.Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
It will be a hardhearted parent who doesn't find a lump in her throat after reading this lyrical tale of a mother's love. Children, meanwhile (and little girls in particular), are certain to get caught up in the story's details of all the fussing and fretting that goes along with being a mommy. Pulling her lost shoe out of a mucky riverbank, a young woman named Zilla discovers that holding on to the other end is "a slithery, mud-golden baby." She becomes its devoted mother, bathing him in milk so he doesn't dry out in heat, and christening him Cinnamon "because he is the color of a beautiful piece of cinnamon toast." As Cinnamon grows up, Zilla fears the river will want her "mud baby" back, but he proves to her that the bond between them is unbreakable. Much of what makes the story magicalin both a literal and a literary senseis its restraint: Gorog (No Swimming in Dark Pond) never explains where the mud baby comes from, and the love between Zilla and Cinnamon emanates from the way Zilla goes about the work of nurturing him: "She fed him and changed him, bathed him and dried him. She told him rhymes on his fingers and his toes. She hugged him and kissed him, so glad that he was real." The gentle lines and sweet humor of Harvey's (Stormy Weather) drawings underscore the subtle charms of the text, deepening the considerable poetry of the story. Ages 6-9. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
After Zilla finds a mud baby in the Little Muddy River, she takes him home to raise as her own. Although the river never attempts to reclaim him, Zilla worries constantly that it will. Finally, however, several years later, the boy has a chance to prove his love and his permanence. Enhanced by the cheery watercolors, the story has a lilting, folkish feel. From HORN BOOK 1996, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Zilla loses a shoe into the clutchy goop that lines the Little Muddy River. When she tries to pull it free, she finds in her hand a mud baby, waving that shoe. Granny Vi, Zilla's neighbor, tells her to wash the child in milk, then water, and what once was mud will become human. She does, he does, a family of two is born. But Zilla is plagued by worries: Does his muddy bathwater mean he is melting (Granny Vi counsels that all children leave muddy bathwater behind), and will the river try to reclaim its creation? This is a promising scenario, especially well realized in Harvey's delicate, joy-filled pictures, but Gorog (see review, above) misses many of its opportunities. The rural setting is never developed, so readers never sense the river's menace the way Zilla does. The character of Cinnamon, first as a baby and then as a grown boy, is frustratingly blank, which makes it hard to identify with the central theme: the cares and concerns of parenting. Zilla's fears are such wild-eyed concoctions that the final scene, in which Cinnamon emerges safely from the river, has little impact. (Picture book. 6-9)
Booklist Review
Ages 5^-9. As Zilla Sasparilla walks along the river bank, her shoe falls off in the mud. When she yanks it out, she discovers that "a slithery mud-golden baby, the most beautiful mud baby in the world" is holding on to it. Zilla bathes the baby in milk, as instructed by Granny Vi; takes him to church to name him Cinnamon; and watches proudly as he grows. She cannot help wondering, however, whether the river will steal Cinnamon back. It won't be Zilla's concern for her son's safety that really interests youngsters. Rather, it will be the story's quirky humor and the notion of a mud baby. Harvey's watercolors are just right, showing the natural beauty of the rural setting and catching Zilla's tender concern with a gently comical touch. --Susan Dove Lempke