A Little Pigeon Toad - Fred Gwynne

Tongue-in-cheek tale might misjudge its audience.

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Common Sense rates it
3
Read the book?
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Book details
  • Author:Fred Gwynne
  • # of pages: 32
  • Publisher:Simon and Schuster BFYR
  • Original Publication Date: 06/01/1990
  • Genre: Non-Fiction - Words
  • Paperback: $6.99
  • Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: Ages 4-8
  • Read Aloud: 4+

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that there's nothing here to worry about. The artwork is squarely aimed at the funny bone, and the simple text is easy to digest. But it lacks any zest or poetry that might have amplified the pleasures of the figures of speech and homonyms it features.

Families can talk about the meaning and origins of a silly-sounding phrase like "pigeon toed" (which, to the human ear, sounds just like the "pigeon toad" mentioned in the book's title). Parents can also explain that these words and phrases are called homonyms and idioms, and can talk about the differences between the two concepts. Are there any homonyms you can think of that aren't mentioned in the book? What about idioms? Which illustration was your favorite? Why?

Message

Social Behavior:

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Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Amy Brotman

A collection of common (and not-so-common) expressions, altered with clever homonyms, then depicted literally in pictures, to zany effect. The text is just the idioms, but the humor is all in the delightfully goofy artwork. Kids enjoy the verbal play, and thinking up their own versions.



Is it any good?

3

The major drawback to Gwynne's chucklefest over the vagaries of language is the discrepancy between the audience who will enjoy his ingenuous visual humor and those who will understand the words or expressions he is punning.

Youngsters will be amused by a plant draped with firearms, but will they understand--or even want to understand--the difference between pistols and pistils? And what percentage of the four-year-old population is going to crack a smile at the picture of a girl sewing banners and the accompanying text: "In Sunday School they say when you are bad you should do pennants"?

So with younger kids you can expect this book to generate little interest--or a lot of questions, and therein lies its strength: as a provocation to delve into the suppleness of language and the joys of wordplay. Older kids who can be convinced to give it a look are often delighted.

A LITTLE PIGEON TOAD is one of three books by Gwynne about verbal misunderstandings; the other two are A Chocolate Moose for Dinner and The King Who Rained. Other titles that illustrate the curiosities of language include Jon Agee's book on oxymorons, Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp?, and the works of Marvin Terban, such as In a Pickle and Mad as a Wet Hen.

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