Kitchen Table Reviews: Magic Pickle and the Garden of Evil
Magic Pickle takes on a rotten bunch of evil veggies in this delightfully punny book.
Magic Pickle and the Garden of Evil by Scott Morse
I picked up a couple of Magic Pickle books because the title made me laugh. A magic pickle? An entire series of books about a magic pickle…? Yes! Magic Pickle—a.k.a. Weapon Kosher—was created by Dr. Jekyll Formaldehyde by accident, when a pickle fell out of his lunch and into his top-secret experiment. But when he’d tried to create an army of veggie sidekicks for Weapon Kosher, they went bad. And thus… the continuing saga of Dill vs. Danger was born. Throw in a “regular” girl—one Jo Jo Wigman, whose bedroom happens to be on top of the Capital Dill lab—and you have a formula for veggie mayhem.
Really, could you have resisted that plot construction? I certainly couldn’t.
Me: This book was full of bad jokes and puns and yet I couldn’t stop laughing at it.
Son: This is the best book I’ve ever read. I love Magic Pickle! And the bad guys are hilarious, too.
Daughter: I laughed, too, even though sometimes it was really corny.
Me: This book is part of Scholastic’s Graphix line, but it’s kind of different than the other graphic novels we’ve read. How did you feel about that?
Daughter: Yeah, it wasn’t as comic book-y as some of the others. It didn’t tell the story all in panels, with pictures for everything. It just had more pictures than a regular book.
Son: But the battle parts were more like a comic book, and that was pretty cool! Also sometimes words would be written kind of comic-book-ily. That makes it more exciting.
Me: You two are good readers, but do you think those extra pictures would make this more appealing to someone who doesn’t like to read so much?
Daughter: Definitely.
Son: Sure, but maybe you could just tell them there’s a Brotherhood of Evil Produce. Isn’t that enough?
He may have a point. Particularly if the kid doesn’t like vegetables.
Me: So what was your favorite part?
Son: I liked how Magic Pickle could never resist a game of checkers! Jo Jo always beat him, but he was addicted. And then later in the story it helped him conquer the bad guys.
Daughter: I liked that Jo Jo got some of Magic Pickle’s Grow Forth and Conquer plant food. That was funny.
Me: I liked how Magic Pickle is always all serious. He’s the perfect straight man for all of the funny stuff.
Son: Actually, he’s kind of curved.
He had a point there, too. But I’m not going to quibble. Especially when I find myself craving kosher dills….
Pros: A delightfully punny twist on the classic tale of good guys vs. bad guys. Would be an excellent book for a reluctant reader. An action-packed, just plain fun read.
Cons: Might make kids who aren’t fond of veggies hate them even more. Magic Pickle is a little creepy-looking. Checkers addiction.
Magic Pickle and the Garden of Evil gets three thumbs up from our kitchen table, as well as a quick trip to our garden just make sure that everything is, well, un-evil-looking.
