Patricia A. Compton

A father and son sit huddled around a fire one stormy night in this retelling of a Japanese folktale, listening as the wind and rain batter their small thatched house. When the son asks his father if he is ever scared, the father's answer—that he fears a thief, a wolf, and a leak—sets in motion a comical chain reaction. Overheard by a thief on the roof and a wolf at the door, the father's answer causes pride, but also leads to confusion, as the wolf hears correctly but doesn't understand what a leak is, while the man mishears, and think there is some fearsome creature called an "eek." When the two interlopers collide, both are terrified, and flee to the nearby forest, where other animals become involved in a humorous chase and final confrontation...

Published in 1991, The Terrible Eek appears to be author Patricia A. Compton's only book, although illustrator Sheila Hamanaka has many other titles to her credit, as both author and artist. I had not heard of either creator when picking up this title, which I sought out due to my interest in folklore. On the whole, I found the telling only moderately engaging, as I kept expecting to feel more amused than I did. Perhaps I simply wasn't in the right frame of mind for this kind of comedy of errors. I was also quite disappointed to find that there was no note of any kind, either within the book or on the dust-jacket, to indicate the source of this tale, as this is something I always look for with folkloric retellings. Given this response, this might have been a two-star book for me, had I not found Hamanaka's oil painting illustrations so arresting. I don't know if I'd call them beautiful, but they were certainly expressive, and very interesting to look at. I'll have to see if I can track down more of her work. As for this one, although the telling didn't make a particularly strong impression on me, tastes vary, so I would still recommend it to young folklore enthusiasts, or picture book audiences who enjoy humorous tales.… (plus d'informations)

This book starts off with a father and son having a conversation about what they are most scared of, which are a thief, a wolf, and a terrible leak. But, the thief hears the words as a terrible "EEK" and the wolf does not know what a leak is, so they both assume it is a creature. Through their fear, they go away from the house and remained frightened throughout the night. Through them talking about things, other animals head of the terrible eek and also become just as frightened.

I think this book was very funny and could be very funny to a group of young children. It reminded me of the game "telephone" we used to play when I was younger, and it was always so funny to see how jumbled the original sentence or story ended up.… (plus d'informations)