Customer Reviews

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub: Book and Musical CD

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was in 5th grade, I read King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, and got to hear the tape with it. It was so good, my brother and I would read it constantly. We would even walk to school singing the song (at the top of our lungs, of course!). A great children's book, all in all, with beautiful illustrations. The absurdity of fishing in a tub, going to war in a tub, eating lunch, and even having a royal ball in a bathtub will have you laughing in no time. Get it for the kids in you life, but I bet some adults will like it too!

The story of King Bidgood is fun and happy and proves there is always an answer to things...just not the ones most would think of first!! The illustrations in this book are the most beautiful I've ever seen. My sons always find something new on each page, everytime we read it...again and again and again...!

My family and I absolutely love this musical production of King Bidgood. The songs are extremely clever and terrifically performed. We all enjoy singing along. I have shared this tape with a first-grade class and they also thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend it to everyone!

I wish I had bought just the audiobook and text. The singing in this production is off-key and extremely grating. It would have been much better if the story had been on one side of the cassette and the yowling on the other. I hide it so my daughter can't play it.

This is one of my all-time favorite children's stories.

We read that "King Bidgood's in the bathtub and he won't get out!" The lively characters, anxious to get their King out of the bathtub, but definitely not wanting to offend his royal sensibilities, subject themselves to the King's demands to fish with him -- in the tub. Dress up for a masquerade -- in the tub. Dine with him -- in the tub.

The lyrics are cute, but the best part of this story is, without a doubt, the beautiful illustrations.

This one is a keeper.

I'm a big fan of Don and Audrey Wood (THE NAPPING HOUSE is one of my all-time favorite children's books; I love PIGGIES, too). I'm lukewarm on this one, however. Admittedly, the illustrations are extraordinary. One bathtub scene has the King and his Knight sitting in steamy tub filled with miniature ships and sailors battling through soapsuds and waves. Another scene has the King fishing in the tub with his Duke. The Duke sits hunched over in a mass of cattails and lily pads, furrowing his brow and trying to bait his hook. Trout leap from the tub, ducks and frogs hide in the rushes, and turtles crawl along the tub's edge. You could spend hours looking at the illustrations; you'll notice all sorts of funny details if you do. I've read this book a million times with my toddler, and I only noticed today that the castle-shaped cake in the food scene (where the King feasts in the tub with his Queen) is topped with a miniature bathtub with King Bidgood in it. Unfortunately, the text is rather weak. It's a simple story. A young page announces that King Bidgood won't get out of the bathtub. Various court officials try to get him out, none successfully. Finally, the entire court ends up in the tub at a Masquerade Ball which gets so crazy that the page pulls the plug. This gets the King out of the tub. The problem is the text is a repetitive quasi-poem thing (which the book jacket describes as a "lyric text"), and some of the lines don't really work. What does it mean, for example, to cry out "with a trout, trout, trout"? That's not to say that the text is horrible. It's not. It's quite okay, in fact. But when the illustrations are really extraordinary, a quite okay text feels like a real let-down.

Have you heard that King Bidgood does not want to get out ofhis bathtub? He wants to do everything in the bathtub: play war with his Admiral, have lunch with the Queen, go fishing with the Duke and even dancing with the Court. His Court is not happy about that at all. All their efforts to get the king out of the bathtub fail. Who knows what to do?

This book about King Bidgood is one of the books by Wood and Wood dealing with issues in toddlers' lives. ... Your toddler and you will love to read about someone else's problems with the bathtub. Reading the book as a parent one finds that sometimes the so called "big" issues in toddlers' lives are the Big issues of Life.

The artwork in the book by Don Wood is engaging, beautiful, and humorous, perfectly capturing the charm and spirit of Audrey Wood's text. In the book one will also get to know the "third" Wood, Bruce Robert, the son of Audrey and Don Wood, who served as the model for the key figure of the book: the King's Page, who knows what to do. ...

When I saw this book I was very impressed with the illustrations done by Don Wood. I would love to have some prints of these pages to frame and hang as a theme for my daughter's bath room. There is so much detail and they are so whimsical, just beautiful.

With that said, the illustrations are so fantastic it sets the bar pretty high for the text. Alas, the text does not hold up to the illustrations. All is not lost though. I found a musical recording of this story at the library which I though might liven the story up a bit, just with background music and a good narrator. It turned out the recording was much more than that. This is not just a reading of the story, it is a true musical. There are six songs that are as detailed as the illustrations. The italicized text in the book is the start of or a portion of the song for that scene. Each song is done in a different style; one reminds me of "greaser" type music while another is clearly rap. After hearing the music it seemed to me that the book wasn't intended to be released without the music. The songs where written by Audrey Wood's sister, Jennifer Shaylen, and her husband, Carl. All four, Audrey, Don, Jennifer and Carl take part in the performance as "the Court" with Jennifer as the narrator and also voicing the Queen, while Carl voices the King. Adam Shippey Shaylen is listed as the Page.

I purchased the cassette (King Bidgood's in the Bathtub: The Musical (Audio Cassette)) here on Amazon not sure if it also included the book, my order came in and it does not include a copy of the book, so I will be ordering that shortly. I have since discovered that you can order a hardcover book with CD, which I would have preferred but did not find until after I received and used the cassette. The cassette has a run time of 13:25 minutes and the songs are:

King of the Land
Boom Boom Boom
Get Out of the Tub!
Renaissance Rap
Dance, Dance
I Knew What to Do

My daughter loves them all and listens to them over and over and over. I even find myself singing along.

IT IS A TOTALLY FUNNY STORY. IN OUR SCHOOL WE HAVE TO GIVE BOOKS TO THE LIBRARY ON OUR BIRTHDAY, I GAVE THIS BOOK. MY TEACHER LIKED IT SO MUCH SHE READ IT TWICE TO OUR CLASS. I THINK WHEN IT IS IN THE LIBRARY A LOT OF PEOPLE WILL READ IT.

I REALLY LIKE THE ILLUSTRATIONS BECAUSE THEY HAVE A LOT OF DETAIL IN THEM. I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE ONE WHERE THE LADY GOES IN THE BATHTUB AND GETS OUT SOAKING WET. HER DRESS PUSHES UP AND SHE HAS GREAT SHOES TOO. HAHAHHA

My three young children liked this book. It's got some crazy stunts like eating and fishing in the bathtub. My little boy (age 4) loves it when asked "Who knows what to do?" on every other page. But my little girl (age 2) likes to repeat what the king says "yum, yum, yum."

It's simple but outrageous story is a delight to young children. The children in our library loved to join in repeating "King Bidgood's in the bathtub and he won't get out. Who knows what to do?"

The artwork is great, you can even see the entire court with perfect costumes on one page and looking like very soggy on the next. It received a Caldecott Honor for good reason. Someone out there knows children.