Customer Reviews

Rainy Morning

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

 

 

The Pinkwaters' extraordinary combination of dry and silly humor begins with the sentence, "Mr. and Mrs. Submarine were sitting at the kitchen table on a rainy morning," and never lets up (in fact, it just gets wilder). The pictures are just as engaging: The opening line is accompanied by beautiful bright colors and a composition that manages to show both the interior of the Submarines' house and the large backyard.

Into this backyard, on this rainy morning, come a variety of wet , hungry animals. Mr. and Mrs. Submarine give shelter--and corn muffins-to a cat (there's a beautiful picture of a cat surrounded by autumnal leaves, with bright green eyes gazing into the house), a huge shaggy dog, a tawny brown horse, crows, a wild coyote, chickens (who wisely stay away from the coyote) and then:

a wildebeest , Ludwig van Beethoven (who speaks in German, translations provided), the United state Marine Band, and more! It gets as crowded and flabbergasting (and perhaps even more surprising) as the Marx Brothers' stateroom in "A Night At the Opera."

Jill Pinkwater's lustrous, fun illustrations are brimming with excitingly vivid colors and a senses of animal energy. Daniel Pinkwater, as always, is a master storyteller, and his quietly outrageous humor will make you one too. Very highly recommended!

The story of this book: Mr. and Mrs. Submarine start by bringing their cat in out of the rain, and offering it a corn muffin. Not strange at all. Then they invite the dog in. Not everyone allows a dog in the house, but many people do. Still, this is not strange.

But later, as the friends include a group of chickens, a group of crows, a coyote, and Beethoven, the book gets funnier and funnier.

Young children realize that cows, chickens, and Beethoven don't belong in the house, and realize just how strange and genuinely funny Mr. and Mrs. Submarine are. Kids just LOVE this book!

There is no plot as such. The guests just tend toward the more and more bizarre, and the comments and humor of the book just get more and more chuckly.

The illustrations in the book are colorful and warm, reminding me of bright watercolors.

If you like Pinkwater books, this is a good one. The book surely does NOT "go anywhere," as one reviewer complained. Surely, that is true. This book is funny without going anywhere.

Give it a try.

ken32

This book is very funny, and totally bizarre. Daniel Pinkwater is one of the greatest, and most underappreciated, authors writing today. The illustrations are beautiful, and add to the overall tone of whimsy and wit.

Sure, Pinkwater's humor isn't for everyone and the kids will miss some of it. Still, I found the book very entertaining which is something I can't say for most books I read to the children.

This story goes nowhere! More and more people and animals keep crowding into the house because it is rainy and then--nothing happens! My two daughters (4 and 5) listened to this story twice and aren't interested in hearing it again.