As is also true of the title, only a third of this gathering of nonsense will go down easily. The occasional appetizing bits—``When the clown is sick,/he calls his wife/and she butters his head/with her buttery knife''—are lost in a gummy potage of dadaist wordplay and tedious verbal meanderings: ``Bumple snigglefritzers,/Are not really bumple snigglefritzers./They are really schwizzers who want to show off./So they cover their heads with lobular zilchers,'' etc. Rhythm and rhyme are established but seldom sustained, while the untitled verses swim in scribbled illustrations colored with thick, smudged crayon. In the last few pages Spilka's language suddenly becomes conventional, his tone more serious. This is even slighter than his last offering, Monkeys Write Terrible Letters (1994). (Picture book/poetry. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-395-74522-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996
This attempt to explain the Pledge’s meaning to younger children is at least as simplistic as it is enlightening. Using a combination of torn paper and simple, fluidly brushed strokes, Raschka (Be Boy Buzz, p. 1310, etc.) supplies a brightly colored backdrop of stylized children and adults, against which the Pledge’s words, generally one by one, are printed in large type and glossed in smaller: “God. Many people believe that a democracy is how God thinks—every single person is important.” Martin and Sampson (Tricks or Treat?, below, etc.) fill in bits of the historical background, mentioning Frances Bellamy, the Pledge’s original composer, but not that his version was very different from the present one, and closing with a dizzying recapitulation: “The flag stands for our history, our inventions, our music, sports, literature, faith . . . ” Children curious about the meaning of what so many of them are compelled to promise every morning in school will get less lyrical, but more factual, commentary from June Swanson’s I Pledge Allegiance (1990). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7636-1648-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2002
An impending school visit by a celebrity chef sends budding cook Ollie into a tailspin. He and his classmates are supposed to bring a favorite family food for show and tell, but his family doesn’t have a clear choice—besides, his little sister Rosy doesn’t like much of anything. What to do? As in their previous two visits to Room 75, Kenah builds suspense while keeping the tone light, and Carter adds both bright notes of color and familiar home and school settings in her cartoon illustrations. Eventually, Ollie winkles favorite ingredients out of his clan, which he combines into a mac-and-cheese casserole with a face on top that draws delighted praise from the class’s renowned guest. As Ollie seems to do his kitchen work without parental assistance, a cautionary tip or two (and maybe a recipe) might not have gone amiss here, but the episode’s mouthwatering climax and resolution will guarantee smiles of contentment all around. (Easy reader. 6-7)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-053561-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2007
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