There Was An Ol' Cajun
"There was an ol' Cajun who swallowed a gnat" begins this quirky debut effort, a twist on "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." Instead of the domestic animals that populate the original version, all the critters reside in the Bayou a skeeter, a newt, a gar and so on and the infectiously silly refrain is pure patois: "Why he did dat?" The voracious Cajun meets his demise not by keeling over from eating a horse, but rather from trying to consume a gator that also has dinner on its mind. Facing each page of text and set against a bright white background is a na‹f, minimalist collage that incorporates natural materials as well as paper and paint. The ol' Cajun is a spiky-haired outline of white space cut from black paper; with each new meal, the outline expands to accommodate his prey. Even with Kadair's highly sophisticated process of visual distillation, children will recognize the critters and appreciate her aesthetics. The cumulative text could have benefited from a roomier layout the block of words grows grayer and harder to read with each addition. But Kadair offers up a story of wily humor that begs to be read with a Cajun inflection, of course. Ages 5-8.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.