The Tale of the Wicked Old Woman and the Very Nice 'Beast' of Crouch End
A Fable for Children and Their Parents
An angry woman’s enduring pain is soothed by her introduction to a loving girl in the fabulistic children’s book The Tale of the Wicked Old Woman and the Very Nice ’Beast’ of Crouch End.
Lance Lee’s meandering fable The Tale of the Wicked Old Woman and the Very Nice ’Beast’ of Crouch End explores a world of magic and misery as an old woman and a girl clash over an ever-expanding cat.
An old woman lives with her daughter in the idyllic countryside, working as a healer. When her daughter considers leaving the area, the frightened woman tries to stop her. When her attempts are unsuccessful, the woman becomes full of anger and spite, leaving a trail of frozen earth in her wake. Generations later, Daisy receives a kitten that she names Little Boots, though the cat grows to be larger than most dogs. The old woman tries to force Daisy to relinquish the cat but is moved by Daisy’s compassion to reconsider her caustic personality.
The old woman’s past is examined in depth before Daisy is introduced. Although this context is necessary to understanding her bitterness, elements of her tale are abandoned afterward, including her daughter’s storyline. Further, the woman doesn’t end up being central to Daisy’s story; she is absent for a large section of the book that focuses on Daisy instead. When she reappears, she is chummy with the townsfolk, whereas before she was ostracized; the change is insufficiently explained.
Further, the book’s background is inconsistent: On one page there is magic, on another there is not. Such disjointedness is jarring, creating a sense of a wandering narrative whose events are unrelated to each other. Also distracting are habits like missing end quotes, the random capitalization of words, and ambiguous word choices (for example, Daisy’s touch creates flowers on the woman’s wooden furniture, which is described as bursting into “leaf”). But the whimsical illustrations, which are represented both on full pages and via sketches and miniature paintings within the text, complement the story well. They include thoughtful details, such as a visiting manager’s bulging shirt, dim lamplight, and the obscene size of Little Boots next to a human; they do an able job of showcasing the magic of the woman’s freezing touch and Daisy’s blossom-inducing one.
Both a fable and a cautionary tale against holding onto anger, The Tale of the Wicked Old Woman and the Very Nice ’Beast’ of Crouch End is an elaborate children’s book in which hostility fades in the light of a little girl’s love for her cat.
Reviewed by
Jennifer Maveety
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
