Craig Smith (1) (1972–)

This originally appeared in Grandpappy's Corner at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S WONKY DONKEY ABOUT?
Lifted from the lyrics of a children's song, the book starts:

I was walking down the road and I saw...
a donkey,
Hee Haw!

And goes on from there to describe this unfortunate equine in more and more detailed (and ridiculous) ways--starting with its three legs, going on to describe its taste in music, coffee consumption, attitude, attractiveness, and so on.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ART FOR A show more MINUTE
Katz Cowley is fantastic. The natural world and physical objects are presented in a great realistic fashion--heightened just a bit. The titular donkey and a bird that shows up in every scene, however, are a goofy cartoonish exaggeration of that fashion

I don't know who decided to give this donkey a prosthetic leg--but it only comes up in the illustrations, so I'm going to give Cowley credit for it. It's a great detail on many levels.

The expressions on the bird and donkey are the stars of the show--better than the words (by a crooked hair). I don't know how a child can look at them and not want to stare. Or not wanting to pick up the book for another reading session.

Especially when a child is the age of the target audience, the adult reading the book is going to see themselves in the coffee-less expression of the donkey on the page talking about the caffeine deprivation. So everyone wins?

You can see some of the art, and learn more about the book, on Cowley's website.

HOW IS IT TO READ ALOUD?
Ohhh boy. This is going to be hard to convey. First, it was only after I'd read this that I took the time to track down the song, but I couldn't help but get a sing-songy cadence and voice as I read it. I also found myself talking faster and faster as I went through the book--like there was this unconscious effort on my part to spend the same amount of time reading each pair of pages--like a snowball rolling downhill, growing bigger and getting faster. This is great and all, but it's also kind of a workout of both stamina and verbal dexterity.

You can't help having fun with these lines--even as they build up and repeat like the 12 Days of Christmas. Really, try being expressionless or frowny while saying "He was a hanky-panky crank stink-dinky lanky honky-tonky wink wonky donkey." You can't, can you?

You might need to start using a spirometer before cracking this thing open though. As fun as it is, you're going to end up getting requests for encores, and after 2-3 readings in a row, it's going to lose a little bit of its charm. So keep something else around so you can switch to it for a minute or two before having to come back.

(between you and me, the song isn't my style. I really hope the Grandcritter doesn't discover it, because it feels like the kind of thing that'd you'd have to listen to 30 times a day--like that ditty about an infant scaleless predatory fish)

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT WONKY DONKEY?
A couple of weeks ago, my wife was telling a friend about our prep work for grandkids, including all the books we're starting to stockpile. Once she got over being aghast that we'd never heard of The Wonky Donkey, she insisted that we fix this. We dutifully complied and it's either one of the best moves we've made or one of the worst (see what I said above about reading it).

Joking aside, this is a great book for the intended age group. I'm going to have to do a deep dive into both the work of Smith and Cowley.

The other thing my wife's friend told us was to get the board book--and she was right again. Parents/Grandparents/Etc. Do NOT get the paperback or hardcover. If the child(ren) doesn't/don't like the book, you'll have spent too much money. If they do like the book (the more likely outcome), they will destroy it. It's going to demand the number of re-re-re-re-reads that anything else won't hold up to it. It's also going to end up being one of those books a kid is going to carry around with them and flip through themselves--a lot. Paperbacks/hardcovers will not survive the gumming, accidental ripping, deliberate ripping, and overall expressions of toddler love that are so destructive.

I can't see where this doesn't become a tongue-tying obsession. The book you know the kid will love, you enjoy (the first few times a day you read it), you end up memorizing without trying to and just hope your lung capacity holds out during. It's fun, it's goofy, and it's the kind of thing you'll look back on in fondness. show less

First things first. Every single time I see the title of this book, this Trace Adkins song called "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" immediately starts playing in my mind. But that's unrelated to the book!

I first heard about this book a few years ago when a grandmother apparently read it on YouTube and it went "viral". While I still never watched that, I did read and enjoy the book.

I work in a public library, and back when it was read on YouTube, a coworker did a dramatic reading of this for us in show more prep for a future storytime. Let me just say, this story is beautifully hilarious.

It's the perfect book for a read along or a storytime. Or even just at home. It's filled with repetition and rhyme, so it's perfect for helping children recall information and have a great time while doing it.

I could not stop laughing and I can't believe I'd never heard of it before. But I'm so glad I finally did. It was funny, cute, and enjoyable! show less

This book, read by a Scottish grandma to her grandchild, was a hoot on Facebook. She couldn't help but laugh hysterically as she read it to the baby. Little did I know at the time that it was not only the silly, rhyming words about a donkey with three legs and one eye that set the grandma into the giggles but also the illustrations by Katz Cowley that bring it home.
I've got to say, though, it's rather sad to be laughing at this disabled donkey who has some issues but the bright side is show more those issues are not keeping him down and he's enjoying life non-the-less. show less

This book is a cumulative rhyme about meeting a donkey with a variety of characteristics including three legs, one eye, a love of country music, a sense of style, etc. Each time a new thing is introduced about his personality, a new adjective is added to his description, increasing the number of rhymes used.

This book is from a British author and word meanings can differ between American English and British English, but it felt a bit insensitive to call a donkey "wonky" because he only has show more three legs. I worry about children with disabilities seeing that and thinking others are mocking them. The cumulative rhyme format doesn't do a whole lot for me when there's no actual story. show less