Josh Funk

Fabulous. An adorable young girl wakes to find that her pet ferret has become a pair of furry feet - and the world has gone a little silly without the letter R! Crows become Cows, a friend becomes a fiend, crabs become cabs. Observant readers will notice the entire text is also without Rs, leading to some really great vocabulary words! The illustrations are fantastic, and the Rs are finally recovered in as silly a place as you can imagine, restoring some sense to the world. Great for lower show more elementary students. show less

When the letter R disappears, a little brown-skinned girl with Afro-puffs finds that her pet ferret, Doodles, has turned into pet feet! But on her mission to save Doodles, she encounters chaos - from kids on "go-cats" to a policeman on the back of a galloping "hose." The author cleverly avoids using the letter R until the girl and her pet find the source of the trouble: a ship full of pirates who have stolen all the Rs. The pirates return the pilfered Rs and "the R fiasco was resolved...but show more then, on the verge of sleep, the girl realizes that all the Zs are missing...

Lots of fun wordplay and a cute fe(rr)et! show less

Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast, along with their nemesis, Baron von Waffle, return in this third rhyming picture-book romp devoted to their adventures. Noticing a distinct chill in the air, the breakfast foods are enlisted by Agent Asparagus to help get to the bottom of the matter, only for that vegetable to disappear. In desperation, the duo turn to the Baron, who, in a surprising move, agrees to help. But is all as it seems in the refrigerator/freezer world...?

Pairing author Josh Funk's show more entertaining tale told in rhyme with illustrator Brendan Kearney's colorful artwork, Mission Defrostable is a fun addition to this picture-book series, and would make for an excellent read-aloud selection. There are some unexpected developments - quite appropriate, in a mystery! - and a sweet happy ending in which the bad guys turn out to not be so bad after all. Recommended to anyone who has read and enjoyed Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast and/or The Case of the Stinky Stench, or who is looking for engaging picture-book adventures. show less

I was not pre-disposed to like this book. Alternative fairytales worked well in the Fractured Fairytales cartoons, in Jon Scieszka’s The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, and in Michael Buckley’s the Sisters Grimm series, but, for the most part, they’re obvious and dumb.

But author Josh Funk totally won me over. No one in this fairytale does what they’re supposed to do. The narrator even becomes frustrated at Gretel in particular for defying the traditional plotline. show more And you’ll be annoyed with her and Hansel, too — until you gradually become giddy with delight. While children will cackle with delight at the contrariness of Funk’s characters, adults will be just as taken with It’s Not Hansel and Gretel, which definitely lives up to its title.

Illustrator Edwardian Taylor puts the icing on this cake with his Nickelodeon Cartoons-like drawings, which add to the winking self-referential nature of the book.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from Amazon First Reads in return for an honest review. show less