  | Unsettling salad! (Jasper Rabbits Creepy Tales!) Author: Reynolds, Aaron | |
| Price: $19.78 | ||
Summary:
Thadeus Badger and his best friend, Oliver Possum, love eating hamburgers, but in an attempt to be healthy, they make a deal to eat a whole salad, only to find themselves in a showdown with something far more sinister than vegetables.
| Illustrator: | Brown, Peter |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (12/01/25)
School Library Journal (01/01/26)
Booklist (01/01/26)
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 01/01/2026 Gr 2–5—This second installment of "Jasper Rabbit's Creepy Tales" brings young readers more laughter and chills. Many kids will relate to Oliver Possum and Thadeus Badger, two fourth graders who love junk food and balk at Oliver's parents' healthy preferences. When Oliver's parents trick the boys into eating salad for dinner, a surprising chain of events begins to unfold. There's a mystery to solve with many clues in both the illustrations and text: a face on a head of broccoli, a full moon, a green tinge to Oliver's complexion. Brown won the Caldecott honor medal for Creepy Carrots! and the artwork in Unsettling Salad! continues to achieve that high caliber. While the black, white, and green illustrations are ominous, they are humorous and not too frightening. There are also modern touches to the imagery such as laptops and cell phones. Unlike the picture books in this series, there are only illustrations every few pages. VERDICT This spooky story is just right for readers in elementary school who enjoy mystery and humor.—Mari Pongkhamsing - Copyright 2026 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 01/01/2026 The admonishment “Eat your veggies” takes a deeply menacing turn in a spine-tingling and silly tale about an ancient cruciferous beast bent on carnivorous destruction. Thaddeus Badger and Oliver Possum are your typical “furry fourth graders,” two “junk-food junkies” whose not-so-sneaky trips to Hurt-A-Burger run afoul of Oliver’s health-oriented parents. A forced BLT salad (that’s broccoli, lima beans, and turnips) comes back to bite poor Oliver, literally, causing his transformation into a merciless were-broccoli, “fangs frothy and bared,” in pursuit of its ultimate craving: badger. Jasper Rabbit returns as the dignified and unsettling omniscient narrator of this second entry in a chapter-book series that stands alone but is reminiscent of Reynolds and Brown's picture book Creepy Carrots! (2012). The neon green of that vicious vegetable is the sole pop of color among otherwise forebodingly grayscale and expressive, comically spooky illustrations. With a plot that skews safely on the side of improbable, this thriller should delight young readers with an appetite for a goofy fright. - Copyright 2026 Booklist.
