Heckedy Peg
Audrey Wood
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
Copyright 1987
29 Pages
Children's Picture Book

Heckedy Peg is a story of a mother with seven children, named Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. One day the mother asks her children what they would like from town that she could get them. After naming the things they would like, the mother warns her children to not let strangers in and to not touch fire. Soon after the mother leaves, the witch named Heckedy Peg shows up. She asks the children to let her in. When they tell her they cant she asks them to bring her a burning straw for her pipe. They tell her they aren't allowed to touch the fire. She then bribes them with a sack of gold. When they let her in, she turns them into food items and takes them to her house to eat them. The mother returns and finds her children missing. She follows a bird to the witch's house and tricks the witch into letting her in. The witch tells the mother that she can have her children if she guesses each child as a food item. She matches what her children asked for to what they are now and the children turn back into themselves. They chase Heckedy Peg until she jumps into a river and is never seen again.
I would recommend this book to parents who have older children who wouldn't be too scared of the book.
Problems I see that this book could cause is that the mother had to pretend to cut off her feet to get into the house. The witch was also going to eat the children which is kind scary.
My reaction to this book was shock at first. I was surprised that the mother had to pretend to cut off her feet to get into the house. That seems a little too graphic to me for children.