The Once-Upon-a-Time Scratch and Sniff Book

by ruthanna-long-eloise-burns-wilkin

c1978 Hardcover is clean and tightly bound. No names or writing. Lovely Wilkin illustrations.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Once Upon A Time Scratch and Sniff Book
Plot: The stories in this book are “The Musicians of Bremen” Which is about a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster who all decide to be musicians and go to Bremen. One night while on the way there they fall asleep in the woods. The next day they come across a house that’s occupied with robbers counting money. They scare the robbers out and take over the house. One of the robbers tries to sneak back in but they scare him off in the dark, and he tells the rest of them a terrible monster is in the house. They forget the trip and decide the live in the house. The next story is “Hansel and Gretel”. Two kids (a boy and a girl named Hansel and Gretel) live with their father and evil stepmother. The stepmother keeps convincing the father to take the kids into the woods and leave them-and it JUST hit me how sorry this man is to pick his wife over his OWN KIDS-. But they’re smart and bring bread crumbs to find their way back. One night they try it and discover that the birds have eaten them. They wonder a little further into the woods and find a gingerbread and candy house that has a witch inside. The witch tries to fatten them up to eat. Hansel every day sticks a bone through the cage. Her eyesight is bad so this fools her. But she loses her patience and decides to eat him anyway. So she asks Gretel (who for some reason she hasn’t caged) to light the fire. When Gretel tells her, she doesn’t know how she waits and when the witch bends over to show her she pushes her in. They reunite with the father and find out the stepmother died. HMMMM! OK! (Maybe the witch wasn’t the only one that got pushed in the over. Or rather the father was a woodcutter so I’m thinking sliced and diced). Speaking of the last story is “Little Red Riding Hood”. A little girl gets send to her sick grandmothers to take her a basket. On the way, she stopped by a wolf. When she gets there he’s slipped in, eaten the grandmother, and in the bed. When he tries to eat Red a woodcutter hears the noise, burst in, and slices him open. The grandmother hops out (YEEEEAH cause I’m sure that’s how it goes) and all is well.

My Thoughts: If it’s any indication that all the scratch and sniff parts no longer smell then I must have liked this book. That or it didn’t hold up through the ages as well as the Raggedy Anne and Andy one did. I liked the scents better from the other book, but this one had some good ones. The scents were (pine trees/pumpkin pie/gingerbread/honeysuckle blossoms/tarts). So not a bad selection. None of those smelled bad. The illustrations were in the old-fashioned style that I like to see in stories like this so they were decent. Out of all the stories, the only one I’d forgotten was The Musicians of Bremen, but it quickly came back to me.

Rating: 6

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scratch, sniff, read, repeat and savor the scents of pine and pumpkin pie from The Musicians of Bremen, brown bread and gingerbread from Hansel and Gretel, and honeysuckle and strawberry tarts from Little Red Ridinghood. This book not only engages the sense of smell but touch and sound, too! “There’s a terrible monster in that house” of The Musicians of Bremen! “First it spat on me and scratched me with his long nails. Then it stabbed me with a knife, and after that it hit me with a club…the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat meowed, and the rooster crowed.” And just when Gretel is convinced, “we’re lost in the forest. Do you think we’ll ever get out?” Hansel reassures, “Don’t worry…We’ll find our way home.” A literary homecoming feast for all the senses!

[Sabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's a very cute book and the scents like gingerbread and pie make it super cozy!