Where's My Tushy?

April 1, 2014
Playful rhyming couplets reveal the necessity of backsides. You'd think it'd be cushy to write about tushies. You'd think it'd be easy to please. Instead, it's a chore. The effort's a bore, and rhyming takes real expertise. Aronson pulls it off in this jaunty picture book enlivened by humorous cartoons featuring chubby, shmoo-like figures dressed in an amazing variety of underwear. When all the tushies in town decide their lives are "too tough" and take off for vacation at the beach, people discover just how important these body parts are in their lives. Their clothes won't stay up, and they can't sit down. There's no real narrative arc here. The rumps run away, romp in the sun and then return, while their owners worry and wonder where they've gone. The couplets, often set as quatrains, sit directly on the illustrations, many of which are double-page spreads that expand the story. Stevanovic's ink-and-watercolor illustrations, digitally enhanced, show unhappy townsfolk making do with pillows and suspenders while detectives and police carry on their investigation and the runaways enjoy the shore. A wraparound cover sets the stage, depicting the bums escaping into the night. Captain Underpants look-alikes return with a caper sure to tickle preschool funny bones at storytime. (Picture book. 3-6)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2014

K-Gr 2-There is nothing funnier to children in this age group than books that use words like "underwear" and "tushy." Perhaps it is because they are words you really aren't supposed to say in polite company. To hear them in a book, then, makes them comfortably naughty. This is a story about tushies that feel they have been overlooked and taken for granted. Collectively, they decide to leave and go on vacation. All this is written in rhyme, a style that grabs young readers and listeners, and the illustrations are colorful and cartoony. The behinds realize that they miss everyone and head back to town, where they are unceremoniously reunited with the rest of their bodies. While readers will be glad to learn of the reunion, the ending is abrupt and the whole package may just be too silly for some. Still, children love funny books, and this one will get many of them chuckling.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.