Addressing picky eaters of all ages and continuing to empower food the way he did in his Giant Meatball (2008), Weinstock offers a set of verses that are often as stomach-churning as they are hilarious: “If everyone hates different food, / Then couldn’t it be true / That creamed chipped beef dislikes Gertrude / And liver gags on Lou?” While considering this proposition, readers can also make the acquaintance of Benjamin Benjamin Dietz who “repeats and repeats what he eats,” celebrate the invention of a “prehensile” utensil and take such savvy warnings as: “I’ll give you some friendly advice-cream: / Don’t order the rat-ripple ice cream.” Full-bleed cartoon art adds flavor with scenes that range from queasy-looking fairground food aboard a Ferris Wheel to a startling send-up of the Goodnight Moon bedroom featuring praying mantises (“I ate your father. Yes, it’s true. / That’s what we praying mantids do”). Definitely, as the closing poem puts it, “Food For Thought.” (Picture book/poetry. 7-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4231-1391-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2009
With an eye toward easy memorization, Katz gathers over 50 short poems from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and Lewis Carroll, to such anonymous gems as “The Burp”—“Pardon me for being rude. / It was not me, it was my food. / It got so lonely down below, / it just popped up to say hello.” Katz includes five of her own verses, and promotes an evident newcomer, Emily George, with four entries. Hafner surrounds every selection with fine-lined cartoons, mostly of animals and children engaged in play, reading, or other familiar activities. Amid the ranks of similar collections, this shiny-faced newcomer may not stand out—but neither will it drift to the bottom of the class. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
A dozen familiar dinosaurs introduce themselves in verse in this uninspired, if colorful, new animal gallery from the authors of Commotion in the Ocean (2000). Smiling, usually toothily, and sporting an array of diamonds, lightning bolts, spikes and tiger stripes, the garishly colored dinosaurs make an eye-catching show, but their comments seldom measure up to their appearance: “I’m a swimming reptile, / I dive down in the sea. / And when I spot a yummy squid, / I eat it up with glee!” (“Ichthyosaurus”) Next to the likes of Kevin Crotty’s Dinosongs (2000), illustrated by Kurt Vargo, or Jack Prelutsky’s classic Tyrannosaurus Was A Beast (1988), illustrated by Arnold Lobel, there’s not much here to roar about. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58925-044-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
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