The front flap says, "This is a story with a beginning, a middle, and a whole lot of ends." The back cover says, "The end is rear." In between is a story told in pictures, about a bear that stacks an array of animals atop his head to reach the top of a tree. Each double page spread is labeled with one or two rhyming or alliterative words describing each animal's posterior. The bear, perched atop a ladder, lifts a duck onto his head. The caption? "Duck tail." Next, a moose perches atop the duck's head and bill. "Moose caboose," it reads. For each animal, painted in acrylics and edged in black, there's a good view of its hind quarters-nothing prurient, just funny. Rising higher still are the penguin patootie, polar bear derriere, turkey tushy, and gnu wazoo, and still the tower of animals ascends. At the pinnacle is the duck-billed platypus gluteus maximus. Kids will love following the story-within-the-story, watching two persevering ants inch up the bodies of the animals on each page.
THEMES: ANIMALS. ENGLISH LANGUAGE. HUMOR. STORIES IN RHYME.
The front flap says, "This is a story with a beginning, a middle, and a whole lot of ends." The back cover says, "The end is rear." In between is a story told in pictures, about a bear that stacks an array of animals atop his head to reach the top of a tree. Each double page spread is labeled with one or two rhyming or alliterative words describing each animal's posterior. The bear, perched atop a ladder, lifts a duck onto his head. The caption? "Duck tail." Next, a moose perches atop the duck's head and bill. "Moose caboose," it reads. For each animal, painted in acrylics and edged in black, there's a good view of its hind quarters-nothing prurient, just funny. Rising higher still are the penguin patootie, polar bear derriere, turkey tushy, and gnu wazoo, and still the tower of animals ascends. At the pinnacle is the duck-billed platypus gluteus maximus. Kids will love following the story-within-the-story, watching two persevering ants inch up the bodies of the animals on each page.
Some people will say this book is pointless and stupid. Kids will say it's hilarious. What I particularly appreciate, aside from the resolute and alarmed expressions on the animals' faces, is the way you can use this book to talk about word choice, initial consonants, rhyming words, and synonyms. Look at all the ways you can say tuchas! While I'm sick to death of gratuitous books about farting, this one uses, with great humor and no offense, 18 words for rump. With older kids, have them look up a body part, such as tooth, finger, head, or brain, and make a list of the interesting synonyms. For nose, you can find: proboscis, schnoz, sniffer, snout, whiffer, and more. With younger kids, have them predict why bear is so determined to get to the top of that tree. Have a honey tasting afterwards to bring up the rear.
THEMES: ANIMALS. ENGLISH LANGUAGE. HUMOR. STORIES IN RHYME.
