It tells the tale of a poor, walled village that is dependent on their bakery for their livelihood they make muffins, but make so little money on them that most of their profits go to firewood and flour. The story itself (which I had to re-read to remember - it's been nearly 40 years since I last laid eyes on this book) is entirely, sweetly innocent. I haven't seen ONE of them in a thrift store, or anywhere else, since I first encountered them in the 1970's, when I was six or seven or so now two unique lots of them pop up in two separate locations, a short time apart, with the first tweaking my recognition of the second! Add to this that I'd given the softcovers to my gal, because, signed or no, they simply aren't as nicely designed as the hardcovers - an aspect of their remembered appeal for me is that they were beautifully made books, uncluttered by unnecessary text or even a barcode - and the fact that this second lot IS hardcover makes it seem almost like someone is listening to me and granting a wish.!Īs you might immediately understand, my thought process on seeing that one of these books is entitled The Muffin Muncher was somewhat more complex than with the others.

It was actually a somewhat, um, serendipitous discovery: I had forgotten all about Serendipity books - a few of which I'd owned and loved as a child - but they'd been on my mind lately, because just LAST week, I found eight Serendipity softcovers, signed by the author Stephen Cosgrove, at a different local thrift store. I've had a delightful thrift store find this week: a lot of thirty hardcover Serendipity books, mostly from the 1970's, all in decent shape.

Muffin muncher book