A rare display of artistic invention, with rewards aplenty for close viewing.
A child’s world is brimming with choices—until it comes to bedtime.
The title seems hardly an exaggeration, as all but a small corner of each spread is jam-crammed full of tiny, nonrepeating images of foodstuffs and other (to use the French original’s term) “trucs” that a young, white narrator encounters while going from breakfast to dinner. Viewers willing to follow along will be confronted with challenges to pick out from the teeming pages six rubber ducks, a nibbled carrot, a frog mask, and like items. Perhaps even more compelling is the temptation to linger over each extravagant outpouring of tiny but finely drawn, individually distinct flora, fauna (the day’s round includes a visit to an aquarium), enticing toys, mouthwatering pastries, items of clothing, and more. Then, instead of options, bedtime brings only a gazillion all-too-similar sheep to count: “WHERE’S THE FUN IN THAT?” the narrator grumpily concludes. Many will agree, though an earlier “I wonder if all this choice is an eternal delight or an infernal torment” may prompt more-reflective sorts to wonder the same. Happily, to ease any incipient frustration, there is a visual key (sans a total for those sheep, though) at the end.
A rare display of artistic invention, with rewards aplenty for close viewing. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-910277-42-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Words & Pictures
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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
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IN THE NEWS
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
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