Once upon a time, on a long, slow trip to Scotland, a little girl named Katerina-Elizabeth tossed her oatmeal overboard—again, and again, and again. She was a picky eater, and oatmeal was her least favorite food.
And once upon a time, a small worm, no bigger than a piece of thread, swam alongside an ocean liner bound for Scotland and ate bowl after bowl of tossed oatmeal. He had never tasted anything as wonderful as oatmeal in his whole life. A. W. Flaherty and Scott Magoon unravel the Loch Ness legend in this whimsical picture book for the picky (and not-so-picky) eater in all of us.
A. W. Flaherty is a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who also teaches at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain. A. W. lives with her husband and twin daughters near Boston.
Scott Magoon is an art director who has written and illustrated several acclaimed picture books, such as the bestselling, Schneider Family Book Award winner Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship, the Spoon series by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and his own Linus the Little Yellow Pencil and The Boy Who Cried Bigfoot! He lives in Massachusetts.
[A] lot of imagination and wonderful storytelling techniques…Dark, cartoonlike watercolors exhibit an excellent use of perspective…simple yet quirky narrative… School Library Journal
"Picky eaters will love the premise and the oatmeal revolt." Booklist 10/01/07 Booklist, ALA
"Mark Twain would have approved of this tall tale…[Flaherty’s] wry tone and Magoon’s droll watercolors lend unexpected charm.” PW 9/17/07
Publishers Weekly
"The story...is laugh-out-loud funny, and Scott Magoon's illustrations...make the book a fantastic read." SLC Tribune 10/15/07 Salt Lake City Tribune
"Funny even if you're not living with picky eaters." The Chicago Tribune 12/08/07 The Chicago Tribune
Boston Globe —