“Fum, foe, fie, fee, monsters don’t eat broccoli,” but it turns out that they do eat all of the other things depicted on Hendra’s opening endpapers, and more: wheels, ships, boulders, buildings and rockets. Oh—and they also savor trees, remarking that “redwoods are delectable,” and later referring to “a clump of giant maples and their yummy, gummy bark…” The book’s punch line is that the monsters are actually imaginative children pretending that the foods on their plates are all of the things listed in the text and depicted in the illustrations. The penultimate double-page spread reveals that the imagined buildings are Swiss cheese slices, rocket ships are carrot sticks, wheels are sliced tomatoes and trees are, you guessed it, broccoli. The vibrant gouache illustrations capture the silly playfulness of the text as goofy, rounded, toothy monsters delight in their odd meals in a variety of settings. Everything culminates in the closing endpapers’ depiction of the children’s foods, rather than the opening endpapers’ references to their imagined counterparts. A fine serving for storytime. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85686-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
From MacDonald (with Bill Oakes, Once Upon Another, 1990, etc.), ten action verbs provide the setting for this guessing-game animal adventure for the very young. Action words—e.g., build, slide, swing, hide, wade, and climb—are introduced with colorful, oversized letters imitating the attribute of a particular animal in its natural habitat. Only a fat tail, pair of stick legs, hairy arm, or slippery flipper can be glimpsed in the introductory spreads for each animal. A turn of the page reveals the hidden creature in full view, paired with the word naming the animal in bold, black typeface. One spread pairs the nuzzling letters of the word Touch with two touching elephant trucks; the next spread shows the entire elephants, greeting one another. The letters of Wade move in the same dainty formation through water as the legs of flamingoes on the next page. MacDonald uses an Eric Carlelike medium of cutting clean shapes out of hand-painted tissue papers to create simple, uncluttered wildlife scenes: a pileated woodpecker pecking a tree or a long-necked giraffe reaching for leaves in the high canopy. A glossary of facts on all ten animals, too difficult for the picture-book audience, will be useful to adults sharing the book with children. (Picture book/nonfiction. 2-4)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-200079-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1997
This amusing book gives children a chance to play with their food without being reprimanded and without making a mess. The dutch-door pages allow readers to turn the top or bottom of the page to arrive at some strange combinations: ``Do you like jelly in your bed?'' or ``Do you like ice cream on your head?'' The artwork is saturated with color, the images pleasing, direct, and graphically elegant, and the typeface good and bold. The emphasis here is clearly on fun, but children will also enjoy making the correct choices, with color-coded pages to help them along. The book is sturdy, with pages of stout, spiral-bound stock. ``Do you like toothpaste on your apple pie?'' Probably not, but the subtext is clever: Eating and reading are adventures—go for it. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: May 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-93106-7
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997
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