Review by Booklist Review
Ages 4^-8. "Is traffic jam delectable? / Does jelly fish in lakes?" With puns, slapstick, rhyme, nonsense, and lots of yucky food, the author-illustrator team that began with the popular New Kid on the Block (1984 ) are back with their fourth funny collection of more than 100 poems. The words have a bouncing rhythm that's great for reading aloud, and Stevenson's small, scribbly, casual ink drawings extend the humor with character and mischief. Like all the best nonsense, the wildness is grounded in its own logic, which depends as much on sound as meaning. Some of the words are in concrete shapes--a maze, a spiral, a zigzag--and the poems about burps and hiccups will make children do what they hear about. In the end, nearly everything comes down to food, whether it's chocolate-covered salami, worm puree, or Sir Lunchalot with his formidable lance. This is "unabated chaos" that also celebrates imagination. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The team behind The New Kid on the Block offers a bounteous volume of verse. In a starred review, PW said, The reigning czars of silliness are back. Hats off to these two glorious goofballs! Ages 5-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 6-Another felicitous collaboration from this team, full of the joy of words and whimsical images. Though the format, size, and type of content is similar to the duo's other books, the verse is fresh and catchy with sparkling wordplay and unexpected rhymes, and Stevenson's line drawings project the humor with verve. Included are the usual poems about weird animals and unusual children, a dragon, yucky food, fantastic experiences in everyday situations, and quite a few clever shape poems. There is even a disappearing one that actually vanishes off the page. All but two of the selections are new. As in the previous books, a wide variety of typefaces and printing tricks are utilized to create an imaginative and entertaining look. Wonderful tools for teachers, the poems boast impeccable rhythms and rhymes and strongly appeal to a child's sense of humor, whether read aloud or independently.-Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA (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) ""Rabbits and parrots play tag in the stars, / marshmallows march in the meadows of Mars. / these are a few of the wonders I find / in the magic museum I keep in my mind."" And what a museum it is! In his customary tumbling rhyme, Jack Prelutsky plays his way through silly images, nonsense words, and corny punch lines. Some of the one hundred and six poems here celebrate childhood mischief. ""My sister whispered magic words / directly in my ear. / The second that she said them / I began to disappear."" And it wouldn't be Prelutsky without a bit of the gross. ""Worms with cheese, mashed with peas, / you are guaranteed to please."" Most of all, the curator of the magic museum is a quirky word guy. There's the fetching young gnu with a penchant for song who ""stars on the Grand Antelopera Stage"" and the passengers who board the Bunny Bus because ""when you're going anywhere, / Rabbit Transit gets you there."" As in previous excursions-The New Kid on the Block (rev. 11/84), Something Big Has Been Here (rev. 11/90), A Pizza the Size of the Sun (rev. 9/96)-James Stevenson deftly follows the goofy tone in small homely pen sketches sprinkled among the verse. Several of the poems appeared in earlier collections. Some of the jokes will be best understood by adults, who will groan at the punny humor, but the book is sure to tickle readers young and old. (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.
