Saturday Night at the Beastro - Hardcover

Jane Breskin Zalben is the author and illustrator of more than fifty children’s books, including picture books, young adult novels, and cook books. She is particularly known for her sweet picture books about the young bear named Beni—one of which, Beni's Family Cookbook, was an ALA Notable Book. She has also illustrated versions of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter. Her latest books include Let There Be Light: Poems and Prayers for Repairing the World, and Hey, Momma Goose. A graduate of Queens College, she taught at the School of Visual Arts for many years and is a painter in the modern tradition. This is her first book with Harper. She is married to Steven Zalben who co-authored and co-created this book.

Saturday Night at the Beastro grew out of Jane and Steven’s love of fine food and fancy wordplay. They live on Long Island, NY.

Jane Breskin Zalben is the author and illustrator of more than fifty children’s books, including picture books, young adult novels, and cook books. She is particularly known for her sweet picture books about the young bear named Beni—one of which, Beni's Family Cookbook, was an ALA Notable Book. She has also illustrated versions of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter. Her latest books include Let There Be Light: Poems and Prayers for Repairing the World, and Hey, Momma Goose. A graduate of Queens College, she taught at the School of Visual Arts for many years and is a painter in the modern tradition. This is her first book with Harper. She is married to Steven Zalben who co-authored and co-created this book.

Saturday Night at the Beastro grew out of Jane and Steven’s love of fine food and fancy wordplay. They live on Long Island, NY.

Steven Zalben is an architect in New York City. Also a graduate of Queens College, Steven was a teacher for many years in New York City Schools before becoming an architect. He now works on commercial and residential projects and specializes in the preservation and restoration of historic structures. This is Steven’s first book, and his first literary collaboration with his wife.

Saturday Night at the Beastro grew out of Jane and Steven’s love of fine food and fancy wordplay. They live on Long Island, NY.

Gr. 1-3. Generous helpings of gross-out humor are served up in this grisly visit to a French Quarter-style "beastro," where the evening begins "with sloths and slugs / Sauteed in oil with crunchy bugs" and ends with "Bat-wing pudding, grub-chip ice. / Leech compote topped with lice." Unappetizing foods are familiar fare for groans and giggles a la Jack Prelutsky's Awful Ogre's Awful Day (2001) and many Halloween books, but here the illustrations are an innovative concoction of ghostly, faded-out restaurant photographs; quirky, colorful hand-drawn creatures; and eccentric collage creatures of fabrics, paper, feathers, and plastic rolling eyeballs. A Saturday night at the Beastro is not without incident: one beast finds a cricket fillet in his worm souffle (and ends up in a parfait dish when he complains to the chef). Still, all calms down around dessert, followed by dancing to the strains of Gargoyle George and the Last Remains. A ghast-ronomical good time. Karin Snelson
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