This bathtime rhyme will tickle young children, though the premise is stretched further than it really goes. Based on the day’s activity, each night the bath water becomes a differently colored “kid tea,” from Monday’s mud brown through popsicle purple, paint yellow, lipstick red and grass green, to bright blue after Saturday’s baking makes for a “muffins-pies-and-jam day / berries-on-my-hands day.” Dibley steeps two children with oversized heads and fixed grins in successive tubs, sometimes alone, sometimes together, and uses exaggeratedly bright, opaque hues for the resulting “teas.” After Sunday, a “go-to-church-and-sing day / steeple-bells-will-ring day,” the water’s clear, “but just you wait till Monday!” As an inducement to climb into the tub, this makes a bouncy alternative to the likes of Robert Neubecker’s Beasty Bath (2005) or the frothy sentiments in Neil Philip’s The Fish Is Me: Bathtime Rhymes, illus by Claire Henley (2002). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-7614-5333-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2007
Rick the bear and his pal, Jack the rabbit, star in their second emergent reader, featuring just one or two short and simple sentences per page. Rick is sick in bed and Jack tries to help by bringing hot tea and an ice pack, by sitting on Rick’s tummy, and finally by curling up next to Rick for a nap. McPhail’s appealing animal characters are full of expression as always, with the pair of devoted friends featured in circular watercolor-and-ink illustrations alternating with pages of text. The actual story is just 16 pages long, with the remaining pages devoted to a follow-up activity (creating a friendship award), a page of discussion questions, author biography, and two pages of information about the Green Light Readers series, including a list of titles. This format seems intended for classroom use and includes guided reading and Reading Recovery levels for teachers. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-15-205091-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Green Light/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2004
Essentially a follow-up to Robert Kraus’s Leo the Late Bloomer (1971) and like tales of developing competency, this follows an exuberant child from morning wash-up to lights out at night, cataloguing the tasks and skills he has mastered. Activities include dressing himself and joining in school activities, choosing his own books, helping with dinner and other household responsibilities, and taking a bath alone before bedtime. In Aliki’s sunny, simplified pictures, it’s a child’s world, seen from low angles and with adults putting in only occasional appearances. Like the lad, the fitfully rhymed text gallops along, sometimes a little too quickly—many illustrations are matched to just a word or two, so viewers aren’t always given much time to absorb one image before being urged on to the next—but underscoring the story’s bustling energy. Young readers and pre-readers will respond enthusiastically to this child’s proud self-assurance, and be prompted to take stock of their own abilities too. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2000
ISBN: 0-06-028929-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
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