Review #87: A Pet for Petunia

Dad:  Tell us about "A Pet for Petunia."
Elijah (age 5):  Petunia wants a pet skunk.
Lily (age 8):  Petunia really likes skunks.  Actually, she really, really, really, really, really so-much-likes skunks that she LOVES skunks.
Isaac (age 12):  She loves skunks more than anything in the whole universe.  And so she wants a skunk.  You don't hear that every day.
Elijah:  I wouldn't want one.
Lily:  Petunia doesn't know the secret-secrets of skunks.  A smell.
Gracie (age 10):  I've never smelled one, and I don't want to.
Lily:  Petunia runs out to the forest.  She sees a skunk.  And she smells the smell of her life: Stink.
Elijah:  She loved the stink.
Lily:  She smelled the Stink of Stinks.  After that, she still loved skunks, but she stopped wanting a real one.
Gracie:  She decided her pet would be a stuffed animal skunk.
Isaac:  But then Petunia wants a porcupine.
Lily: (singing)  "Now I love porcupines just the way they are..."
Dad:  What did you think of that skunk in the book?
Elijah:  He's adorable!
Gracie:  He's so cute!
Lily:  I would want that skunk.  If we got gas masks I would.
Gracie:  Paul Schmid draws the cutest skunks in the world.
Lily:  The key is big foreheads.
Isaac:  Little eyeballs.  Little cute smile.
Gracie:  It's just so cute.
Isaac:  I love that skunk!
Gracie:  For these pictures Paul Schmid only uses black and white and purple.  And tiny bits and pieces of yellow.  But most of the book is just black, white, and purple.
Elijah:  It's like he used watercolor.
Isaac:  Little splotches.
Dad:  Just like Petunia loves her skunks, each of you guys has your own favorite animal, don't you.  Lily is our duck lover.
Lily:  I want a real duck.  Ducks are adorable.  Our neighbor Gina had a real duck from a farm.  Why can't I have a duck?
Gracie:  Gina used to have a turtle.  But she had to give it away.  And then she had a duck.  But that ran away.  And she used to have three bunnies.  But two of them died.
Dad:  Yikes.  I don't think I'd give Gina any more animals.  Now, we saw that skunks have drawbacks -- are there any problems with having a duck?
Lily:  They nibble you.
Elijah:  I want a turtle.  I love turtles.
Gracie:  I love, love, love pandas.  They are absolutely adorable.  Even more adorable than skunks.  But I can't have a panda because they are almost extinct, and they are protected by Chinese police.  But I want one so bad.  I at least want to see one in real life.
Elijah:  I want to see a real turtle in real life.
Dad:  I think your chances are better than Gracie's.
Gracie:  I could fly to China...  smuggle a panda bear onto the plane...
Dad:  Even little sister Evie has her "own" special animal.
Lily:  Owls!
Dad:  And you each have lots of stuffed versions of your favorite animal.
Elijah:  Yeah.
Isaac:  I don't.
Dad:  What is your animal Isaac?  Do you even have one?
Isaac:  A turkey.
Dad:  What?  You are making that up.  I've never heard you say that once ever.
Isaac:  No, no, no.  I decided that two weeks ago.  I decided I need to get a real turkey, so ever since I've wanted one.
Dad:  I thought dragons were your favorite.  You are Dragon-boy.
Isaac:  Dragons don't exist.
Gracie:  You don't have any stuffed turkeys do you?
Isaac:  Nope.
Dad:  On Thanksgiving we get stuffed with turkey.
Isaac:  Or we get turkey with stuffing.
Dad:  Alright.  So Isaac likes turkeys now.  Now you each have an animal.
Isaac:  I want a real turkey so it can guard the house.  I could train it to attack robbers.
Dad:  I think Elijah's animal is the most realistic.  We might be able to get an aquarium with a little turtle someday.
Gracie:  How much do you think they cost?
Elijah:  Ninety million.
Dad:  Wow.  Well, maybe we won't be getting one.

a porcupine for Petunia, by Gracie

a duck for Lily, by Lily

a turtle for Elijah, by Elijah

a turkey for Isaac, by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Paul Schmid
Published, 2011: HarperCollins
Like it?  Here it is

Review #64: The Wonder Book

Dad:  Today we are taking a look at "The Wonder Book," written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Paul Schmid.  What did you guys think of it?
Lily (age 7):  Kids should pick this book up.  They would like it.
Gracie (age 9):  Any kid would like this.  It's hilarious.
Lily:  I want everyone to know the hilarious-ness-es of this book.
Isaac (age 11):  This is a poem book.
Dad:  Did you have a favorite poem in there, Lily?
Lily:  I don't know which is my favorite.  But the one I remember most is with the boy in the water, and he says: "Tinkle / Tinkle / In the sea / Don't look under / While I pee."
Dad:  Ah, so sophisticated...
Isaac:  It's funny!
Dad:  How about you, Gracie?
Gracie:  I like the Various Friends of Mary Mack.  You know that rhyme that goes "Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack / All dressed in black black black..."  Well, these are the Less Famous Friends of Mary Mack.  So there is "Miss Mary Fred Fred Fred / All dressed in red red red..." and stuff like that.
Dad:  And many of these poems involve wordplay...  Making a pun...  Or making a palindrome...
Lily:  A whatty-what?
Gracie:  A palindrome is a word that is the same spelled both backward and forward.
Dad:  And Isaac, tell us about puns.
Isaac:  This is an example from the book...  If you said, "Puns of the Week," then "Sun" Day would be hot.  And "Twos" Day would be a girl and her reflection.  And "Fry" Day would be french fry day.
Gracie: (flipping through the book)  I like this poem too...
Dad:  It's a funny list of names...
Gracie:  The illustrator could have drawn anything, but he drew all these kids piled on top of a camel, and the camel is the one named Bob.
Dad:  So the poem is funny by itself.  And even the picture is funny by itself.  But what happens when you put the two together?
Gracie:  It explodes into little nuggets of laughing goodness.
Dad:  So what did the illustrator bring to the book?
Gracie:  Hilariousness.
Isaac:  I don't think it would have been as good without the words, and I don't think it would have been as good without the pictures.
Dad:  So the book needed both Mrs. Rosenthal and Mr. Schmid.
Gracie:  Paul Schmid makes skinny, little, stick ears on his guys.  Look at them!  Bumpy, stick ears.
Isaac:  And they have little, teeny legs and little, teeny arms.
Elijah (age 4):  They look like little moosh-kins.
Dad:  What is a mooshkin?  You mean munchkins?
Elijah:  Moosh-kin.
Isaac:  The drawings look like they were done really fast.  They are really good though.  I really like his drawings.
Gracie:  Loose doodley black and white.
Dad:  Did you have a favorite drawing?
Gracie:  At the very beginning of the book where everybody is standing in a line, there is this hilarious bunny.  He's freaky!  A fat monster bunny!  He's got big eyebrows and he's the freakiest bunny in the world.  And standing in line there is also a little teeny short dude in a superman costume that we all thought looks like Grandpa!
Isaac:  Ha hah!
Dad:  Does "The Wonder Book" remind you of any other books we have?
Isaac:  Yes!  Those other two poem books.  "The End of the Sidewalk..."
Gracie:  It's called "The Edge of the World."
Dad:  Actually, it's "Where the Sidewalk Ends."
Isaac:  And the other one is called something like "I Have a House on My Head."
Dad:  Ha ha -- "A Light in the Attic."  Those are both by Shel Silverstein.
Gracie:  Those books have a whole bunch of poems in them too.  And look at these pictures!  They are very much the same style as the pictures in the Freaky-guy books.
Dad:  Freaky-guy?  You mean Shel Silverstein?
Gracie: (running to get the Silverstein books)  There are really freaky photographs of him on the backs of the books.  This one has a picture of his foot.  And this one... is... Eeeeea!  They are all freaky, freaky pictures of him, his face, and his feet.
Dad:  So should they have taken a really scary, horrifying picture of Amy Krouse Rosenthal for the back of The Wonder Book?
Isaac:  Ha hah ha... No...  Ha ha...
Dad: (turning to the jacket flap/author bio in The Wonder Book)  See, this is what she looks like in real life...
Gracie:  Oh, she's cute!
Dad:  What about this picture of Paul Schmidt?
Gracie:  He's... not as cute...
Isaac:  Ha ha!
Gracie:  Um.
Lily:  He's got cool hair.
Gracie:  Yeah!  He's got REALLY cool hair!

monster bunnies attacking grandpa boy, by Gracie

Miss Mary Bean Bean Bean
All dressed in green green green
Had the cutest kitten kitten kitten
You've ever seen seen seen

- poem and picture by Lily

And some "Month Puns" by Isaac:

Ape Rule

Jewel Lie

Sup' Timber

Author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Illustrator: Paul Schmid
Published, 2010: Harper Collins
Like it? Find it