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DOWN BY THE BAY; SHAKE MY SILLIES OUT by Raffi

DOWN BY THE BAY; SHAKE MY SILLIES OUT

By

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 1987
Publisher: Crown

Two of the popular Canadian singer's favorite children's songs produced as ebullient picture books. ""Down by the bay, where the watermelons grow, Back to my home I dare not go. For if I do my mother will say, 'Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose. . .?. . .a whale with a polka-dot tail. . .?' "" etc. Comic, cartoonish illustrations extend the silly humor; children will enjoy extending the song with their own rhymed incongruities. A night scene filled with laughing sounds prefaces the arrival of assorted woodland creatures who commence dancing about to ""shake my sillies out. . .and wiggle my waggles away."" They're soon joined by human campers, and the policeman and fireman the distraught counselor calls to quell all, but the shaking finally does the trick--everybody subsides into snoozing. Allender's stylized shakers are lively and amusing against the deep, nighttime forest. The songs, included, are sure-fire. Though they make rather slight picture books, if budgets are ample they may prove useful.