It seems like I’ve been seeing a lot of Cookie Monster lately, from the
Occupy Sesame Street poster making the rounds on Facebook – 99% of the
world’s cookies are consumed by 1% of its monsters” – to the “delete
cookies???” avatar that features a distraught Cookie Monster staring at
the computer screen. Clearly he is a beloved figure beyond just his core
demographic. Of course, that’s partly because so many adults grew up
with this furry blue overeater. His sweet tooth has been getting him
into trouble for decades. Recently, I stumbled upon one of his early
adventures. I wonder if they knew back in 1977, when Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree was published, that Cookie Monster would still be so popular today?
In this quirky Little Golden Book written by David Korr and illustrated by Joe Mathieu, Cookie Monster is often identified as the
Cookie Monster, which suggests to me that there are multiple cookie
monsters but only one in the vicinity. Well, one’s enough; Cookie
Monster’s reputation as a glutton precedes him. The story doesn’t
actually start with him. Instead, we first meet a selfish witch and her
talking cookie tree. When she sees Cookie Monster coming, the witch
hastily casts a spell dictating that only those who share will be able
to eat from the tree. She cackles at her cleverness, but will it
backfire?
All of the characters in this story display negative
characteristics of some kind. Cookie Monster and the witch are both
greedy. The friends – classic Sesame Street
characters Herry Monster, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Prairie Dawn, the
Count, Grover and Oscar – all are unwilling to take a chance on
believing that Cookie Monster might actually be telling the truth about
wanting to share cookies. And the tree is just plain ornery, but then I
imagine you would be too if people kept plucking cookies off you all
day.
Most of the friends Cookie Monster tries to take back to
the tree with him aren’t exactly rude, but nearly every one of them
laughs, so absurd is the idea that he might share. This seems a bit
excessive. Granted, it’s the behavior we need to see in order to set up
the ending, but as hungry as Cookie Monster is, he also has a good
heart. One of my favorite sketches involves him having breakfast with
Ernie, and while he does make a bit of a mess of things, he still has
every intention of them both eating. I think he might be a little more
generous than this book is giving him credit for.
Still, while
it’s fun to see all those established characters, this book is really
about Cookie Monster and the unnamed witch and how they are able to come
to an understanding. The blurb on the title page describes it as an
“educational” book, and the lesson is on sharing, though the silly
shenanigans at the end undermine the moral somewhat. The tone of the
book is light-hearted and even a bit snarky; Korr is definitely going
for humor more often than not. The drawings have a fun retro look to
them and are enhanced by the dialogue bubbles coming out of characters’
mouths. The funniest character is the purple witch, whose creaky voice
is easy to imagine and who is prone to having temper tantrums. Kids,
don’t do this at home.
Cookie Monster has been a part of my life
for three decades, and it’s fun to peruse this book and see a slightly
earlier incarnation of him. While I don’t think the educational value of
this particular book is very strong, it’s still a fun story that does
show how selfishness can have unpleasant consequences. And oh, yeah,
it’ll make you really hungry for chocolate chip cookies…
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