7. Heckedy Peg

Title: Heckedy Peg
Author: Audrey Wood
Illustrator: Don Wood
Publisher: Voyager Books (Harcourt Brace & Co.)
Copyright Date: September 1992
Number of Pages: 30
Reading Level: 5+
Genre: Fable, Folk Tale, Myth

Summary
There are seven children named Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The children are all loved by their mother. One day, because the children have been so good the mother says to the children that she will bring each one something special from the market. Each child asked for something they wanted. Before mother left she told her children not to let any strangers into the house and not to touch fire. The children started to play when an old witch named Heckedy Peg came knocking at their window. The witch offered gold if the children would let her in and light her pipe. The children agreed and as soon as they let her in and lit her pipe magic turned them all into food. The witch gathered all the food up and took it back to her cave far away. When the mother returned she was desperate to find her children, a blackbird took pity on her and told her where the witch had taken them. The mother has to trick the witch to get into her cave and then she has to name each of her children by what food they are. Mother uses the items the children asked for to successfully name them and they magically change back. Mother then chases the old witch and she falls over the side of a bridge and no one ever hears from old Heckedy Peg again.

Recommendation
I think this is such a good read-aloud book for children as well as a good book for children just learning to read. The story is simple to understand and not too elaborate. I think that it is a book that could easily become a child’s favorite to return to each night.

Problems/Conflicts
I didn’t see any real conflicts or problems with the book.

My Reaction
I’m excited to get to read this to my kids one day now that I own the book because of this class! The pictures are breathtaking and the story is so simple but it has a really good message to it all. The two main messages that I caught were: a mother who is willing to do anything for her children and children who disobey their mother and have to take the consequences.