HEARING EYE Publications
Reviews of From Cookie to Witch is an Old Story by Leah Fritz, illustrated with woodcuts by Emily Johns.
Ambit 182 (Autumn, 2005)
"...It's beautifully economical for the momentous theme of motherhood and is told humorously, concretely, sophisticatedly and tellingly."
Herbert Lomas
Poetry London 52 (Autumn, 2005)
"My last stop on the pamphlet highway today is at Leah Fritz's delightful fairy tale, From Cookie to Witch is an Old Story, a book-length poem. This tall hand-stitched book, with its warm old-fashioned cover and spooky sepia woodcuts by Emily Johns, is a quick read but a long pleasure to linger over. Fritz has combined two well-known children's tales, "The Gingerbread Boy" and "Hansel and Gretel" to arrive at her own runaway gingerbread girl. And if the presentation is period, the diction is modern and sensual:
After eluding the parents
who would swallow her soul
to save her crummy skin
and the gourmet fox
whose compliments to the chef
were almost irresistible
Frankly, you shouldn't even try to resist this book; it's an old story (or two) beautifully reinvented."
Chris Beckett