DON’T SAY THAT WORD!
by Alan Katz & illustrated by David Catrow
In a set of rhymes that should have second graders of all ages rolling on the floor, young Michael’s report on a school-day’s events runs afoul of severe restrictions on the vocabulary he’s allowed to use. A parental interruption (see title) means that readers will have to supply the last word of each verse: “In Art my pal Richie got inky. / But Mom, that was only the start. / ’Cause Richie then made the room stinky / by blasting a really big. . . . ” Catrow imbues the illustrations with his usual frenetic energy, placing the shock-haired young poet amid masses of messy domestic clutter and posing him with visual clues (e.g., finger in nose or pointing toward butt, holding a steaming mass of mashed potatoes, etc.) to aid those readers—if there are any in the entire world—who can’t figure out the right rhyming terms. Put this on the shelf with more direct titles like William Kotzwinkle’s tales of Walter the dog, Shinta Cho’s The Gas We Pass (1994), Lisa Kopelke’s Excuse Me! (2003) and such—or maybe with etiquette books. (Picture book. 6-8)