Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The creators of My Little Sister Ate One Hare here turn their attention from counting to the alphabet, echoing the playfully off-color humor of that earlier collaboration. In rollicking rhymed couplets, the camera-toting young narrator chronicles his wide-eyed sister's "hugging spree," describing her affectionate antics with a menagerie of critters from ape to zebra. More often than not, the demonstrative girl's encounters yield comically calamitous consequences, as when "My little sister hugged an eel./ She liked its slippery, slimy feel./ It tied itself up in a long, icky knot/ And hung from her nose like a big glob of snot." In other ill-fated embraces, a hog lands on top of her in "soft, gooey mud," she falls out of a kangaroo's pouch into a pricker bush and an umbrella bird lays an egg that "broke into pieces and ran down her leg." Offering some drolly-skewed perspectives, Hawkes's vividly hued, energetic illustrations match the appealing goofiness of the narrative (youngsters can almost smell the skunk's scent from the visual representation of its effects). This fanciful frolic through the alphabet gives youngsters words and images aplenty to chuckle over. Ages 5-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-The exuberant and omnivorous younger sibling from this team's My Little Sister Ate One Hare (Crown, 1996) is back. Hawkes's rounded, humorous paintings interpret Grossman's manic universe-this time one in which "ABC golly gee!/My sister's on/a hugging spree!" Letter by letter, the girl enthusiastically squeezes an amusing assortment of animals. While the premise is not so fresh the second time around, the book's humor will certainly appeal to children: "My little sister hugged a NEWT,/Who climbed in her mouth because it looked cute/And crawled so far down that you hardly could spot him./All you could see sticking out was his bottom." While adults may not embrace this book, young listeners surely will.-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME (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
(Primary) In this companion to their riotous counting book My Little Sister Ate One Hare, Grossman and Hawkes follow the narrator's little sister on an alphabetically arranged ""hugging spree."" Whereas the previous book showed a devoted glutton eagerly downing an assortment of critters (along with their socks, underpants, and the like), here the main character doesn't look quite as gung-ho about her project, probably because her displays of affection are met with mixed results. While she manages to wrap her arms around an entire llama family -- ""llamas prefer to be hugged by the dozens"" -- the horrified moose falls apart, literally, when she goes to give him a squeeze. Grossman's playful rhymes once again have a gleefully naughty penchant for gross-out details, as when little sis embraces an eel and ""it tied itself up in a long, icky knot / And hung from her nose like a big glob of snot."" Some of the verse is a bit choppy, and the momentum isn't as strong as in One Hare, which built toward a satisfying old-lady-who-swallowed-a-fly-style finale. Still, Hawkes's color-soaked caricatures and Grossman's good-natured text offer a lively view of a girl's creative attempt to show the animal kingdom some love. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The adventurous younger sibling who Ate One Hare--and so much more--back in 1996 returns, no older, to hug her way exuberantly through an alphabet of flamboozled creatures, from Ape to Zebra. Like its predecessor, the gross-out factor is high, but not off the charts--"My little sister hugged a BUG / A mighty tiny thing to hug. / It slipped from her arms and flew up her nose. / Bugs prefer noses to arms, I suppose"--and Hawkes's scenes of underlit figures with oversize heads and popping eyes will also have children rolling in the aisles, but not losing their lunches. The hugging spree ends with a final, aw-shucks embrace of big brother, who's been following along with a camera--a perfect end to the best touchy-feely read-aloud since Grossman's like-themed Donna O'Neeshuck Was Chased By Some Cows (1988), illustrated by Sue Truesdell. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
