Gourmands, armchair or otherwise, with strong stomachs will smack their lips.
A child captured by a hungry monster turns out to have some unusual ideas about preparing dinner.
Though the concept is not altogether new, this trickster tale has some special features of its own to offer—most particularly a set of outstandingly gross recipes like “Eyeball Sushi” and “Cockroach Cola” (“1. Pop the cockroaches in your mouth and crunch until blended. 2. Spit”) that give way at the end to dishes that sound revolting but have edible, even delicious, ingredients. With Sir Gutguzzler and other monstrous friends all sending formal RSVPs, each missive a glued-in, folded feature for little fingers to tease apart, Beast is looking forward to a memorable repast. But “Dinner,” a small child with light brown skin and an engaging mop of reddish curls, keeps suggesting improvements. Instead of fattening Dinner up with “putrid swill,” how about some chocolate cake? Rather than adding just a sprinkle of salt and a bare dip into a tub of slime, why not enjoy delightful outings to the sea and the local swamp? Soon Beast is thinking that Dinner doesn’t look like dinner any more…and Beast isn’t looking so beastly to the child, either. But what to feed the guests? Maybe “Chocolate Fingers” without actual fingers? The monsters all have a wonderful dinner. And Dinner does too.
Gourmands, armchair or otherwise, with strong stomachs will smack their lips. (Novelty picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68464-005-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education.
A young visionary describes his ideal school: “Perfectly planned and impeccably clean. / On a scale, 1 to 10, it’s more like 15!”
In keeping with the self-indulgently fanciful lines of If I Built a Car (2005) and If I Built a House (2012), young Jack outlines in Seussian rhyme a shiny, bright, futuristic facility in which students are swept to open-roofed classes in clear tubes, there are no tests but lots of field trips, and art, music, and science are afterthoughts next to the huge and awesome gym, playground, and lunchroom. A robot and lots of cute puppies (including one in a wheeled cart) greet students at the door, robotically made-to-order lunches range from “PB & jelly to squid, lightly seared,” and the library’s books are all animated popups rather than the “everyday regular” sorts. There are no guards to be seen in the spacious hallways—hardly any adults at all, come to that—and the sparse coed student body features light- and dark-skinned figures in roughly equal numbers, a few with Asian features, and one in a wheelchair. Aside from the lack of restrooms, it seems an idyllic environment—at least for dog-loving children who prefer sports and play over quieter pursuits.
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55291-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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