Joshua sets off to deliver a huckleberry pie to his grandmother and he and the pie are kidnapped by a mob of mean-tempered crabs.
Card catalog description

Four-color illustrations by Mary Barrett Brown.

Kindergarten-Grade 2?In the process of rowing a boat containing a huckleberry pie across the swamp to his grandmother, Joshua gets waylaid by a contingent of crabs ("They were big. They were blue. They were bad.") who steal the pie. After a couple of skirmishes with them, Joshua strikes a bargain: he won't trap or eat them in gumbo anymore if they stop stealing all the sweets his mother and grandmother bake. Then they all celebrate at the crabs' shindig, where the main course is chocolate cake with coconut frosting (suspiciously resembling Joshua's birthday cake that had disappeared). To accompany this lighthearted story, Brown has created delightfully humorous pictures of mean-looking crabs and friendly swamp life.?Judith Constantinides, East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal