This Christmas-themed children’s book has a moral and educational tone about the spiritual joys of giving to the poor and the origins of various foodstuffs, but through a surreal concept that to more sensitive readers may seem sinister rather than fun.
The story begins with a boy and his mother taking a freshly baked mince pie upstairs so it’s not nibbled by mice. As they watch, something odd happens. A crowd of dolls bursts out of the pie, each doll representing an ingredient. Each doll tells its story from when it was grown, to being harvested and put in the pie. They were very happy to be eaten. This was especially disturbing once we got to the mince, because it turns out that it’s not a sweet pie made with mincemeat, but a savoury one. It is very skimmed over how the mince is one day minding its own business in a field, enjoying life, and the next, it’s equally content to be chopped up and baked. Every so often, the dolls summon a ‘story sprite’ to narrate tales, including Johnny Appleseed, a sequel to ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ that no one ever asked for, and a story of a wealthy little girl who is visited by a fairy, is shown poor children who have no presents in their stockings and then gives her possessions away to them.
I will not ‘mince’ my words about this book. It was certainly unusual, but I really didn’t like it.
Published in 1916 by Dodd, Mead & Co. Illustrated by John Rae.
This was the final book in my Project Gutenberg random reads.