Junket is Nice

A silly, delightful story from the author of Pat the Bunny. What is junket? Well, junket is a delicious custard that makes a lovely dessert. Why is the old man with a red beard and red slippers eating such an enormous bowl of junket, and what could he possibly be thinking about while he feasts? That's a good question! And one that the old man poses to the crowds and crowds of people that gather to watch him eat his enormous bowl of junket. In fact, almost everyone in the whole world wants to know the answer to this riddle. And only one little boy has the answer.

Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt (1901–1979) was an American author of books for small children and is best known for Pat the Bunny (1940), one of the all-time best-selling children’s books in the United States. Her first book, Junket Is Nice, was a success when it appeared in 1933 and was followed by Now Open the Box (forthcoming from The New York Review Children’s Collection), Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather, Brave Mr. Buckingham, and Tiny Animal Stories. Kunhardt published nearly fifty books, including several nonfiction works for adults about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War (her father amassed a legendary collection of Civil War–era photographs and memorabilia). Several years after her death, Philip B. Kunhardt Jr. remembered his mother’s boundless curiosity and appreciation for the way young people observe the world, writing in The New York Times that “for Dorothy Kunhardt a children’s book was nothing more or less than a way to talk to children.”