Bing Bang Boing (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The 150-plus poems and drawings collected in Douglas Florian's Bing Bang Boing speak to children's great fascinations, from the gleeful disgust of eating bugs to the jittery unrest of perhaps one day bumping into an unexpected monster. Yet it is Florian's creative wordplay that truly distinguishes this text. Take "Commas," for example:

Do commas have mommas
Who teach them to pause
Who comfort and calm them
And clean their sharp claws?
Who tell them short stories
of uncommon commas
And send them to bed
in their comma pajamas?

Bing Bang Boing is officially recommended for grades 4 to 6, but there is plenty in here for children as young as 5 years old, particularly thanks to Florian's exuberant black-and-white line drawings. While a few of the poems seem slanted for adults ("Welcome to suburbia / where life is so superbia"), the majority of this work will charm and engage a wide range of youngsters. With its goofy, fun-to-say title and its wealth of poetic experience inside, this playful collection is certain to become a family favorite along with Florian's well-loved Insectlopedia. (Ages 5 and older) --Jean Lenihan

From Publishers Weekly

Florian's (Beast Feast) collection of light verse is sometimes clever, sometimes silly-and almost always off the wall. He introduces a man who "stayed in bed/ Till mushrooms sprouted from his head"; an aunt who "grew auntlers overnight"; and the woman from Boise whose sneakers were so "squeaky and noisy" that "she set them to boil/ in sunflower oil,/ Then she jogged all the way to New Joisy." The jocular tone occasionally falls flat, but there are plenty of deliciously gross poems with advice about not eating caterpillars (because "that will only make you iller") or about navigating the school cafeteria (where "the mere thought of lunch/ Makes [your] stomach scrunch"). The black-and-white cartoon drawings, the format and the trim size clearly recall Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and Jack Prelutsky's Something BIG Has Been Here. Though Florian's verses are generally more interesting than his thick line art, he is right on target with elementary school humor, whether penning paeans to smelly socks or waxing rhapsodic about beetles for breakfast. Ages 6-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (November 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152337709
• ISBN-13: 978-0152337704
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,751,211 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Reader from Minnesota, May 9, 2004

By A Customer

Recently purchased and returned "Bing Bang Boing" and "Laugh-eteria". These were returned because of poems such as "They Put Me in the Stupid Class" and "Genny Glubber" which tells of all the things wrong with a 'fat like blubber' girl with a 'face that leaves people panic-stricken' but in the end says 'how I love her.' This is not to say that all of the poems in these two books are like this, and many are quite fun. My suggestion is to look at his other books (which I have purchased) such as "Lizards, Frogs & Polliwogs", "Beast Feast" and "Insectlopedia". In addition, another fun book is "Summersaults" which is a great series of poems about summer. You will not be disappointed by any of these purchases.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So funny!, November 9, 2006

By	Library Lady "Amy" (Santa Fe, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bing Bang Boing: Poems and Drawings (Puffin Poetry Book) (Paperback)

This is a great book of poetry to have in a classroom! My 6th graders love it and so do I! My children's lit. professor recommended it as a must have when building a classroom library of poetry books and I agree!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Filled with funny poems!, July 7, 2003

A Kid's Review

Douglas Florian writes about all sorts of things in his poems: anacondas, squares, elephants wearing pants, and much, much, more! His poems take all different shapes and sizes too: circles, squares, people, and many other fun shapes. If you like to read nonsense poems, you'll absolutely love this book. Bing Bang Boing is good for grades 2-4.