From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3—Here is a joyous, totally original potpourri of stories, poems, lists, palindromes, visual jokes, and random observations about the universal delights and conundrums of childhood. Set squarely in the world of the 21st-century child, with references to tae kwon do, 50 TV channels, and chocolate-chip pancakes, these varied musings nonetheless speak to everyone's inner child, young or old, mentioning table manners, dinosaurs, bratty children, whining, the tooth fairy, and moms and dads who can't relate. Simple, evocative, and childlike black-and-white line drawings, in concert with judicious and varied use of white space, perfectly capture the happy/sad/serious/silly moods of the selections. A book that can be opened on any page, it includes a handy, tongue-in-cheek index of key words and images to guide readers to subjects of interest. Make room on the poetry shelf between Prelutsky and Silverstein: fans of such well-loved titles as
The New Kid on the Block (1984) and
A Light in the Attic (1981, both HarperCollins) will flock to this winning volume of sheer fun.—
Kathleen Finn, St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski, VT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This silly compendium of puns, prose, poems, and puzzlers raises questions that kids wonder about; e.g., “I wonder if a dog breaks a mirror, if it has 49 years of bad luck” or “I wonder if laughing hyenas ever cry. From one-liners to full-page poems, some of the humor is spot-on, while some may be a stretch for the primary level (“This little piggy played the stock market / This little piggy loved a gnome / This little piggy was a toast thief / This little piggy loved a nun.” Some ditties rely on visual jokes, such as “Week at a Glance,” which renames “Monday” as “Money Day” and depicts three piglets with coin slots in their backs—piggy banks. The childlike black-and-white sketches and compositions are reminiscent of Shel Silverstein, while the prose hints at Jack Prelutsky. Intended to be read in bits and pieces; an index closes, though its usefulness is limited. Grades 2-4. --Julie Cummins
