What if Everything Had Legs?

June 6, 2011
Not even the promise of cupcakes can buoy the spirits of a girl faced with a long walk home with her mother. What does the trick, however, is a question as pragmatic as it is absurd: "Mom, why can't the house have legs and walk to us?" Her mother answers, "Because then cupcakes could have legs and run away!" and the next spread shows the girl and a gang of friends pursuing a giant, photographic cupcake with a pair of cartoon human legs. Menchin's figures have the wide eyes and stiff limbs of people in Egyptian friezes; they look nearly as otherworldly as the (now animate) inanimate objects they're imagining. But kids will enjoy the leggy possibilities: a rock with patched pants braces itself against a slope as mother and daughter try pushing it downhill ("Rocks wouldn't roll"), while a huge dinner roll sporting bellbottoms grooves under a disco ball ("But rolls could rock!"). "Guess what, Mom?" says the girl, as a Lego piece and teacup dance in her window at journey's end. "I'm not tired anymore!" It's a bubbly thought exercise that should inspire similar flights of fancy. Ages 4â8.

July 1, 2011

PreS-Gr 1-A young girl trudging home with her mom on an urban sidewalk complains of fatigue and wishes their house had legs and could walk to them. So begins a mother/daughter "what if" game in which they imagine apples, rakes, rocks, toys, and other inanimate objects all growing legs and enjoying their new mobility. Now energized by her humorous visualizations, rendered in bold pen-and-ink cartoon drawings that are colored digitally and combined with photographs, the girl arrives home in no time. In a conclusion that kick-starts another imaginative scenario, she wonders: "What if everything had arms?" The simple text and wacky, hybrid illustrations of objects sprouting legs (and arms) combine for an entertaining read-aloud that will engage young children and stir up their own creative juices.-Kathleen Finn, St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski, VT

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2011

An extended flight of fancy can take your mind right off your troubles.

An exhausted little girl just cannot bring herself to walk home, even though there are cupcakes waiting for her when she gets there. The girl asks her mother why the house can't walk to them instead of the other way around. Her mother replies because if that happened, then the cupcakes might have legs too and decide to run away! The girl begins to imagine what it would be like if everything had legs, like apples, worms, rakes, leaves, cars and snails. If rocks had legs, they "wouldn't roll. But rolls could rock!" The illustrations on this particular page spread are particularly funny; the rock and the roll are realistic, photo-collage images with cartoonlike legs protruding from them. If toys had legs, continues the girl, they would surely put themselves away, toothbrushes would squeeze the toothpaste and bubbles--why, they would boogie-woogie, of course. Once the mother and daughter arrive at home and cupcakes are served, the girl puts forth a new question: What if everything had ARMS? The brightly colored, mixed-media illustrations are interesting, even though not all share the same inventiveness as the rock/roll spread.

An amusing tale that may spark readers to embark on their own imaginative journeys. (Picture book. 4-8)

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