Kirkus Reviews QR Code
STICK OUT YOUR TONGUE! by JOan Bonsignore

STICK OUT YOUR TONGUE!

Fantastic Facts, Features, and Functions of Animal and Human Tongues

by JOan Bonsignore & illustrated by John T. Ward

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2001
ISBN: 1-56145-230-0
Publisher: Peachtree

Proof positive that a promising topic can’t survive uneven writing, inexpert art, and poor page design. Bonsignore indeed gathers up fascinating facts, but then presents them clumsily: “. . . it would be pretty amazing if [like some geckos] you could reach your tongue over your eyeballs!” and interspersed with such inane asides as: “Can you pick up a pea with your tongue? Make sure your mom isn’t looking.” Several blocks of text are printed over dark, legibility-reducing backgrounds (at least in pre-publication), and the child Ward has placed in each picture often has misshapen hands, off-center facial features, or unhealthy, flushed skin. There is no index or resource list. Buy another copy of Allan Fowler’s Let’s Talk About Tongues (1997) instead. (Nonfiction. 7-9)