Riddle Soup (A Mr. Poggle and Scamp Book). This item is unavailable.Riddle Soup (A Mr. Poggle and Scamp Book)

When Scamp complains they never have interesting suppers, Mr. Poggle decides to make Riddle Soup

ea. vol: illus. by Jeni Bassett. unpaged. (Mr. Poggle and Scamp Bks.). Four Winds Pr. 1987. PSm $8.95; pap. $3.95. PreSchool-K An odd combination of cuteness and didacticism afflicts both of these books, but The Oatmeal Cookie Giant is the more offensive. When Mr. Poggle, the older and wiser of the two dogs (who re sembles a fuzzy Mr. Potato Head), tries to coax Scamp into visiting old Uncle Thorny, cliches about the elderly abound. His house ``smells like rotten grapefruit,'' and the old uncle admonishes Scamp about rocking in the rocking chair and eat ing too many cookies (saying several times that this will make him throw up). In the end, a story that Uncle Thorny recalls about his own youth reconciles the two, and Scamp predictably wants to visit again. In Riddle Soup, Mr. Poggle suc cessfully interests Scamp in the same old soup for dinner by asking riddles about each ingredient that goes into the pot. The moral, that soup, like anything else, is ``only as interesting as you make it'' is stated and repeated at the end of the reci pe offered on the last page. The detailed pastel backgrounds are attractive but not special. The relationship between Scamp and Mr. Poggle is puzzling, and some small explanation would help. Good sto ries don't need to thrust morals at chil dren, and these books just try too hard without giving much original substance. Janet E. Fricker, formerly at Phillipsburg Free Public Library, N.J.
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