Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3-5. Most people know the jaunty tune "Today Is Monday" ("Monday, string beans, Tuesday, spaghetti"), but it gets new life in a picture book bursting with food, animals, and lots of energy. Beginning with the grinning cat on the cover (bib around neck, fork at the ready), a zooful of animals act out the lyrics: snakes get tangled in spaghetti, elephants use their trunks to slurp "Zoooop," and pelicans catch fish on Friday. With text at a minimum, Carle's always innovative artwork steps center stage in an oversize format that allows gloriously colored collages to spread over two pages. At the book's conclusion, the animals take a back seat to a multiethnic crew of able and disabled kids who come to share Sunday's supper. The music and lyrics to the song are appended, so everyone has a chance to sing along. ~--Ilene Cooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In his take on the cumulative children's song, Carle "injects energy and movement with his signature rainbow-like collages," said PW. Ages 2-6. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-- Featuring the artist's familiar bold and colorful style, this song was originally illustrated as a frieze in 1977. Now adapted as a picture book, it is a joyous invitation to ``all the hungry children''--shown at a multiethnic banquet at the end of the book--to ``. . . Come and eat it up!'' Each double-page spread shows a line from the song, with a different animal for each day of the week, eating a different food. Most of the animals are eating a predictable food (a fox with a chicken, a pelican with a fish), but there are some nonsensical scenes (a snake with spaghetti, an elephant eating ``zoop''). Overall, the verse has a catchy, cumulative rhythm, but it's the dazzling illustrations--gorgeously displayed with a mastery of design and form--that make this a simple, yet memorable, picture book. --Cyrisse Jaffee, Newton Public Schools, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The cumulative song introducing days of the week and foods has been illustrated in Carle's distinctive, bold collage style. Each large spread shows a different animal -- a porcupine for 'Monday, string beans,' a snake for 'Tuesday, spaghetti,' and a monkey enjoying 'Sunday, ice cream.' The last spread shows children of many races and a child in a wheelchair eating the seven foods around a big table. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Carle's illustrations for this catchy, lighthearted cumulative song (``...today is Tuesday, Tuesday spaghetti, Monday string beans, All you hungry children Come and eat it up'') originally appeared in 1977 as a frieze; they are even more welcome in this attractive book showing a porcupine eating the beans, an elephant slopping up Wednesday's ``ZOOOOP,'' a cat snitching Thursday's roast beef, and so on. Rendered in Carle's trademark luminescent tissue-paper collage, the glowing animals are handsomely set off by the expansive white ground. A concluding scene with seven children sharing a meal makes a satisfying finale. Music included, but the song isn't sourced. (Picture book. 3-8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
