From Publishers Weekly
In this confusing book, 25 boys and one girl introduce themselves in alphabetical order. From "My name is Art And I am smart" to "My name is Zack It's hair I lack," the narrative doles out a measure of silliness, as when letter-D Dean grows a bean that flusters Gene, three letters later ("My name is Gene I'm feeling mean And that's because of Dean's odd bean"). Eschbacher mimics the mannered meter and phrasing of Dr. Seuss, as in a stanza about the mechanic named Hank ("I use a tool I like to call `Hank's Tank Crank Fancy Fix-It-All"), and the lone female ("Yes, I'm a girl, I'm glad to say. So should I go? No! I will stay"). Yet the author never diverges from his rigid A-to-Z march, and his uninspired rhymes cannot compare to classic wordplay. Johnson (What! Cried Granny) combines prickly pen-and-ink drawings with flat, software-generated patches of color; his slick compositions favor hard edges and cold surfaces. Unfortunately, these inert poems and pictures exhibit only mechanical glee. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2--Twenty-five boys and one girl introduce themselves in short verses using a Dr. Seuss-like meter and rhyme scheme. Each child's name begins with a letter of the alphabet (Art, Bob, Chet, etc.). There is very little lightness in the jog-trot mechanical reiteration of the same verse pattern 26 times in a row, with almost no variation: "My name is Frank, I drive a tank,/The kind of tank that you must crank"; "My name is Wade/And in the shade/I like to sell my lemonade." The one girl, Nell, says: "Yes, I'm a girl,/I'm glad to say./So should I go?/NO! I will stay." The 1950s' retro tone of the text is reinforced by stylized cartoon illustrations in which eggplant purple, khaki, rusty brown, and a pale chartreuse predominate, and the characters are reminiscent of some animated cartoons of that era. However, both the art and the text lack appeal and energy.
Marian Drabkin, formerly at Richmond Public Library, CACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
