Saturday Night at the Beastro [Library Binding]

Jane Breskin Zalben (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

Dinner is served at the Beastro, and it's like no meal seen before! Fang-smacking delicacies grace the tables, with sloths, slugs, and crunchy bugs wiggling on platters. And for dessert, there's nothing like batwing pudding to delight the palate -- all washed down with a glass of skunk juice!For this rowdy gathering of hungry monsters, the Beastro is well prepared to satisfy the strangest of appetites.

Jane Breskin Zalben and Steven Zalben's unique verse and eclectic artwork -- created with original photography, digital manipulation, hand painting, and detailed collage -- combine to make this one of the most stunningly stylish and unusually elegant affairs ever!

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2–A rhyming text describes Saturday night in a New Orleans hangout for the finest beasts where the cuisine features, "All that scatters,/Squirms, or slithers–served on platters." The Beastro's menu includes such delicacies as free-range fireflies, Jus de Skunk, and roach flambé–and if the patrons of the Beastro don't mind their manners, they just might end up on the menu, too. Less an actual story than a catalog of gross food, this book may be just right for fans of David Pelham's Sam's Sandwich (Dutton, 1991). The unique illustrations feature colorful drawings and collages of the beasts, superimposed over faded photos of an actual New Orleans eatery, but the most fascinating part of the book just may be the endpapers that feature a recipe for "Chef Charles Worm Soufflé." Definitely not for the squeamish.–Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Maryland School for the Deaf, Columbia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 1-3. Generous helpings of gross-out humor are served up in this grisly visit to a French Quarter-style "beastro," where the evening begins "with sloths and slugs / Sauteed in oil with crunchy bugs" and ends with "Bat-wing pudding, grub-chip ice. / Leech compote topped with lice." Unappetizing foods are familiar fare for groans and giggles a la Jack Prelutsky's Awful Ogre's Awful Day (2001) and many Halloween books, but here the illustrations are an innovative concoction of ghostly, faded-out restaurant photographs; quirky, colorful hand-drawn creatures; and eccentric collage creatures of fabrics, paper, feathers, and plastic rolling eyeballs. A Saturday night at the Beastro is not without incident: one beast finds a cricket fillet in his worm souffle (and ends up in a parfait dish when he complains to the chef). Still, all calms down around dessert, followed by dancing to the strains of Gargoyle George and the Last Remains. A ghast-ronomical good time. Karin Snelson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Library Binding: 40 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060292288
• ISBN-13: 978-0060292287
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,800,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars FUN! Catchy rhymes and fun pictures that invite exploration, September 24, 2011

By 

kcm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saturday Night at the Beastro (Hardcover)

This is always a favorite of our childrens' reading circle around Halloween. The rhyming structure is very catchy and fun, the artwork is intriguing and invites exploration, and the Beastro's menu is sufficiently "icky" to gets lots of giggles and "ewwwws." Also the language is sophisticated enough to entertain adults too--this is a good choice for those who understand that building a sophisticated vocabulary is a cumulative process that begins at birth.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not the best halloween book out there, October 25, 2004

By 

Melissa Sack (georgia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saturday Night at the Beastro (Library Binding)

It's Saturday Night and all the rich and famous beast in New Orleans gather at the Beastro for good food and fun. Some of the famous dishes served there are Free Range FireFlies, Worm Souffe', and Lizard cookies!


The story didn't flow very well. Lots of the rhyming test seemed forced.
This book would be on okay book to read around Halloween due to the pictures of "beast". There are better choices out there in our opinion.