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A Little Pigeon Toad

Book Summary

Reviewed by Peter Lewis

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 Fred 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's punning. Youngsters will be amused by a plant draped with firearms, for example. 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"?

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.

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