Amazon.com Review
We've all been there. You're snorkeling around a good bubble bath, trying to wash off a long day's worth of playground dirt. And then "one drippy drop" from the faucet starts to drive you crazy. So what do you do? Why "slow the flow with [your] little big toe," of course. Just like wild-haired little Henry Hathaway did. Only Henry wasn't so lucky; Henry got stuck.
"Oops."
"What oops?" said Mother.
"Big oops," said Henry. "I think I made a boo-boo... a TUB-boo-boo."
"A tub-what-who?"
So Mother climbs in the bath: "She was absolutely sure, positively positive that if she could just wiggle her fingers up into the spigot and wrangle them around Henry's little big toe... why... well... uh...." And before you can say "What the hay?" (that's Dad's line), everyone from the plumber to the policeman tries to help, committing their own tub-boo-boos and getting "stuck smack-dab in the spout."
This silly, cyclical story plays well to the strengths of unapologetic goofball Margie Palatini (Zoom Broom, The Web Files), who's never afraid to get messy with the sort of repetitive wordplay that kids love. But what you'll likely love first and best about Tub-Boo-Boo are the surreal, Stretch Armstrong-style illustrations of Glin Dibley (better known in the teen world as Michael Koelsch, for his Strange Kid Chronicles, Magic cards, and such). With Dibley's unlikely palette--spacey blues and greens and browns accented with arresting orange hair and just-polished red fingernails--and a bubble-headed cast of bathers that always looks just half-inflated, it's hard not to stare. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes
From Publishers Weekly
A kid plugs a spigot with his toe and starts a bathtub hubbub in this blathery, lathery book. "I just wanted to stop one drippy drop. Slow the flow with my little big toe. And now I'm stuck!" Henry says, wiggling around in a froth of bubbles. His mother tries to help but wedges her fingers in the tap, and his father gets his tie tangled up, too. A policeman and a plumber (with his posterior over-exposed) join the fray and shout the refrain, " `It's a tub-boo-boo!' `A tub-what-who?' `A tub-boo-boo!' " Henry's big sister, who supplies the blustery narration, finally saves the day by applying ice cream to the affected areas: "Shlurp! Out slid Dad's tie. Thwamp! Out came Mother's fingers." Palatini (The Web Files) propels the story to a fever pitch with nonstop wordplay and punchy dialogue. Debut illustrator Dibley, whose acrylics recall somewhat David Shannon's work, overinflates the characters' faces, which bulge like balloons with shiny weak spots. Henry has watery eyes, strange three-fingered hands and a pale, worried face with a bruised green-and-purple cast. The queasy, distorted images lend urgency to this outrageous account of a toe jam. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
