Helen Oxenbury

This adorable story in cumulative verse (in which a writer adds new phrases in each repetition) features a small child who is on a shopping trip. At every store, instead of the item requested, the shopkeeper hands over a bag that turns out to have an animal inside:

“I went to the shop to get me a carrot
Oh dear, they gave me . . .
a parrot!”
Oh dear, look what I got.
Do I want that?
No, I do NOT.”

Nevertheless, on the child goes, and at each shop, another animal is added to the growing show more menagerie.

The tempo switches as the animals turn their attention to each other, starting with the most recent acquisition (a wriggly pup) chasing the one that came before it, a bear. The bear steps on the snake, that hisses at the goat, that butts the cat, and so on back to the beginning.

Children will be giggling over the improbable antics and the build-up of verses and beasts until a dance-filled happy ending satisfies all.

Helen Oxenbury is a titan in the field of children’s book illustrations. She, like Maurice Sendak and Mercer Mayer, regularly tops lists of most outstanding picture book artists. Indeed, all three share similarities in their style and senses of humor. Oxenbury has a well-honed instinct for knowing what kids will find funny and enjoyable, how to depict myriad shifting emotions of both kids and animals, and how to lay out her pictures to add interest and fun to the story. In this book, her watercolors stand out on white backgrounds lending them emphasis and providing context. As always, her characters reflect the matter-of-fact diversity of the real world.

Evaluation: Kids as young as two will love this fun book perfect for group storytimes. The repetition and rhythm of cumulative verse and songs make such books very popular with kids. This one in particular reminds me of the Passover Seder’s traditional closing song, “Chad Gadya” (“One Little Goat”). A wider audience might think of “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” Either way, the format promises great entertainment for young readers, who may want to celebrate the ending with a dance of their own.

Besides amusement, the book offers quite a lot of teaching opportunities, from identifying emotions expressed by the wildlife characters to building skills with memory, language, and rhyme. show less

I really liked Helen Oxenbury's illustrations (pencils? maybe also crayon or watercolor?) but unfortunately, like so many of Margaret Mahy's early works, the sexism just really irks me. Literally all the characters -- the animals, the shop-owner -- were male, except for the stay-at-home mom. The land of magic was described with princesses in tower windows combing their hair, mermaids singing, and sons off seeking adventure. It's just a little tiresome for the parent reading this, and show more re-gendering as I go along to eliminate unnecessary gendering (why does the cat, or the dragon, have to be male?) -- the alternative would be to explain to my kid, yet again, that people had/have old-fashioned views .... It really starts to ruin my pleasure in a story after a while. show less

An independent young boy is out shopping, but the shopkeepers keep giving him things that rhyme with the thing he wants (a parrot instead of a carrot, a bear instead of a chair, etc.). In the end they all show up at his door with the things he actually wanted in the first place, and take back the critters he doesn't know what to do with.

The rhythm/cadence instantly reminded me of Dear Zoo; it's delightful to read aloud. It's unclear why the shopkeepers give the kid animals (which they later show more want back) instead of what he asked for....but fun to read aloud anyway. show less

This was a fun book to read; it brought back many memories. The main idea of this book is to let children listen to classic stories and help them use their imagination. One reason I liked this book was because of the illustrations. They are drawn almost exactly as I see the story in my head, so I'm sure the children enjoy them as well. For example, during "The Gingerbread Man", there is a whole page dedicated to an illustration of the gingerbread man running through a field with townspeople, show more the baker, and a horse chasing him. It is nice that there is a picture on almost every page, and they have very soft and bright colors, which I think might make the children feel more relaxed. The second reason I enjoyed this book was the authors choices of nursery stories. Some of them include "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and "Little Red Riding Hood". These are all stories I grew up with, so it is fun to see all of the same folk tales being passed down. show less