Review #122: Giant Dance Party

 

Isaac (age 14):  “Giant Dance Party.”
Lily (age 10):  (singing) Hey, hey, hey, it’s a good book!

Gracie (age 12):  When a book is good, you are just drawn to it for the sake of its awesomeness.

Lily:  It’s by Betsy Bird, and Brandon Dorman is illustrating it.

Elijah (age 7):  I’ve never heard of a book illustrated by a Doormat.

Gracie:  DorMAN.

Lily:  The book is about this girl, and she loved to dance all the day.

Gracie:  Lexy.

Lily:  But every time she had a recital, she froze up on stage like an ice pop. 

Isaac:  She forgot to breathe… THAT’S not a good thing.

Lily:  You should NOT forget how to breathe.

Isaac:  Dangerous.  Breathing is very important.

Lily:  She thought instead of dancing she could teach dance lessons.  But no one came.

Evangeline (age 5):  Then giants showed up.

Elijah:  Big blue furry ones in overalls.

Lily:  I think we should name them.  The… Farggy Hizzard Giants.

Dad:  Ooo… catchy.

Lily:  She taught them to dance, and she got over her fear when the giants got froze-y up too.

Elijah:  Froze-y!  Froze-y.

Lily:  Dancie-dance-dance.

Isaac:  I honestly would not have thought of drawing giants that looked like that.  But it would not have been as awesome if they just looked like giants the way everyone imagines giants.

Gracie:  Most giants just look like normal people but magnified.  With crooked teeth and bad clothes.  But these ones are like cute monsters.  They are adorable!

Lily:  They look like really big bugs.

Gracie:  They’re kind of like furry cucumbers.

Lily:  They look like fuzzy blue pigs.

Gracie:  They do!

Lily:  With antennas.

Evangeline:  I like the girl ones.  They are cute ones.  How many girl giants are there?

Elijah:  My favorite is the giant with bushy eyebrows.  MacDuff.  I especially like when he wears his wig.

Isaac:  What is Scottish Highland Dancing?  I want to learn it.  Because it sounds awesome.

Dad:  I think it’s kind of jiggy.

Gracie:  Jig it up!

Isaac:  Is it like River Dancing?  Because that’s cool.

Dad:  Elijah has awesome dance moves, don’t you.  Do you remember that one time you drank olive juice and went crazy all over like a dancing fool?

Elijah:  In my underwear.

Dad:  You do remember!

Isaac:  We’ve got it on taa-aaape.

Dad:  Gracie used to take dance lessons when she was a little dude.

Gracie:  When I was 4!

Dad:  Do you remember that at all?

Gracie:  Yeah.  I had a special spot where I liked to sit on the floor – the whole floor was flat except for this one notch that bumped up and it looked like someone pooped there.

Dad:  Ha ha ha hah… Wow.  I’m glad you have some fond memories of your dancing days.

Isaac:  I have a question.  Why is there a cupcake on the cover of this book?  It has nothing to do with the book at ALL.  It’s a random cupcake!

Gracie:  Yeah, why on earth?  There’s not one cupcake in the entire book!

Dad:  I think it’s just a bonus cupcake.  For your viewing pleasure.

Gracie:  Why the heck is it there?

Lily:  It’s got to be a really big cupcake.  Giant sized.

Isaac:  It’s as big as the girl’s head!

Elijah:  He’s going to splat it on her.

Gracie:  We are so obsessed with this cupcake.

Dad:  Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Isaac:  I have a theory about why no one came to Lexy’s dance lessons.  She didn’t have her address on the fliers she put out.  That could definitely be the reason.

Dad:  How did the giants find her then?

Isaac:  That’s why it took them all week long.  They found the fliers the first day, and they were looking for her all week.  They had been going door to door.  See, I have reasons for everything.

Gracie:  Then what’s the reason for the cupcake?

Isaac:  I have no reason for that.

a Farggy Hizzard Giant, by Lily

Lexy, by Evangeline

MacDuff, by Elijah

 Lexy's dance lessons for giants, aliens, & unicorns, by Gracie

giant dance moves, by Isaac

Author: Betsy Bird

Illustrator: Brandon Dorman

Published, 2013: Greenwillow Books

Like it?  Here it is