Bing Bang Boing - Hardcover

Florian, Douglas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152337709 ISBN 13: 9780152337704

Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books, 1994

Synopsis

Meet Genny Glubber, who’s fat like blubber, and Mr. Giles, who has seven smiles. And Little-Naughty-Nasty Ned, who glued his brother to a bed. Come along and join the fun--this book has a poem for everyone! “From the sunlit yellow of its jacket to the humorous tone of its verse, this should prove a popular choice for poetry shelves.”--Booklist

About this title

About the Author

DOUGLAS FLORIAN is the creator of many acclaimed picture books including zoo's who; bow wow meow meow, a Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year; lizards, frogs, and polliwogs, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book; mammalabilia, an ABA's Pick of the Lists; insectlopedia, an ALA Notable Children's Book and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; and omnibeasts, a gift collection of his best-loved animal poems. He lives with his family in New York City.

Reviews

Grade 2-5-A merry, modern collection of nonsense verse. Florian has a sure sense of what children will find humorous. Regardless of the form his poems take, he remains in control of the medium, and, like John Ciardi, is a master at word choice. The author's spare, pen-and-ink drawings, like the poems themselves, deftly explore the comic potential in each combination of words. With a few clean lines, he creates an original, funny vision.
Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Florian's (Beast Feast) collection of light verse is sometimes clever, sometimes silly-and almost always off the wall. He introduces a man who "stayed in bed/ Till mushrooms sprouted from his head"; an aunt who "grew auntlers overnight"; and the woman from Boise whose sneakers were so "squeaky and noisy" that "she set them to boil/ in sunflower oil,/ Then she jogged all the way to New Joisy." The jocular tone occasionally falls flat, but there are plenty of deliciously gross poems with advice about not eating caterpillars (because "that will only make you iller") or about navigating the school cafeteria (where "the mere thought of lunch/ Makes [your] stomach scrunch"). The black-and-white cartoon drawings, the format and the trim size clearly recall Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and Jack Prelutsky's Something BIG Has Been Here. Though Florian's verses are generally more interesting than his thick line art, he is right on target with elementary school humor, whether penning paeans to smelly socks or waxing rhapsodic about beetles for breakfast. Ages 6-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4-6. No slender volume of ethereal verse but a big, chunky slab of poetry in the spirit of Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974) and Prelutsky's The New Kid on the Block (1984), this book promises laughs--and it delivers. From the clever to the wry, from the gross to the wise, from the sunny to the witty, there's something in the collection of short poems to please even the most curmudgeonly reader, though the quality is a bit uneven. Try "Tara planted tulip bulbs / And black-eyed Susan seed. / Peter planted light bulbs / So all the worms could read." or "Noodles and peas, / Noodles and cheese, / And for all you cannibals: / Noodles and knees." Although best known for the full-color paintings in his picture books, Florian illustrates each selection here with an expressive line drawing. From the sunlit yellow of its jacket to the humorous tone of its verse, this should prove a popular choice for poetry shelves. Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152337709
• ISBN 13: 9780152337704
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144