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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Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names...
A lad finds a big red dragon in his basement and wisely seeks expert advice about its care and feeding in this epistolary episode.
Young Alexander’s missives (there are no cellphones, nor parents, in sight) are mostly paraphrased rather than shown, but each response comes as a small note folded into a pocket that’s been printed and shaped like an envelope: “Douse it in water right away!” writes panic-stricken fire chief H.Y. Drant; find it a large house or castle, advises B. East of World Animal Welfare; “fatten it up,” suggests Angus Teak the butcher (“Look forward to [eating, scratched out] meeting your dragon”) with sinister relish. Boy and dragon have wonderful times together, but the ultimate realization that dragons really don’t make good pets leads the narrator to follow the written advice of best friend Hillary (“the wisest person I knew”) and set it free. The later arrival of a slightly burned picture postcard in the “post” reassures him that the dragon won’t be forgetting to keep in touch. The human figures in Yarlett’s cartoon illustrations are either white or have their heads cut off at the page top. With the exception of the pasted-on postcard from the dragon at the end, all of the correspondence is removable and thereby losable.
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names add some appeal. (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61067-818-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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