Sneezenesia

October 1, 2010

K-Gr 2-"There once was a boy who sneezed so hard, he forgot his own name" begins this quirky, offbeat offering. The boy forgets almost everything he has learned-including "an entire hanky's worth of presidents"-as it all comes out of his head in sneezes at the supermarket (with some high kid-appeal green boogers attached to the image of Richard Nixon). The boy finally stops sneezing, and there is a fabulous picture of his emissions looking up at him imploringly, among them dinosaurs, Santa and his reindeer, Pilgrims, and numerals, wondering how they are supposed to "get back in." It turns out they get suctioned in with a simple sniff, which also pulls over the boy's mother from the other side of the market. She wipes his nose and finds a residual dinosaur, "a big green thing," dangling from his nostril. The artwork, done in paint, collage, and Photoshop, jumps off the page and adds pace and animation to the story. The supermarket mothers are worth a giggle with their retro outfits and accessories. This funny read-aloud could be paired with any version of "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" for a rousing storytime.-Alison Donnelly, Collinsville Memorial Public Library, IL

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