Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

An angry farmer tries to keep hunger rabbits out of his garden by building bigger and bigger fences. Will he finally keep the rabbits out? You have to read this book to find out. I could see using this book during a story time for older children --1st-3rd- grade. I think the punchline of the story is spoiled because the illustration of it is not clear enough. Even I had to go back and look at the last few pages to get the joke!

"Muncha" is a filthy, frottagey word, and the dude in this doesn't learn a lesson at the end and share with the bunnies, and there is a general air of assumption that of course, naturally, everybody will be clamouring to consume this tired farmer v. rabbit story.

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! is an adorable and hilarious book to read to a child. It would be good for a read-aloud story time because of all of the sound-based action words. Children can guess what will come next, but they won't know the exact phrases, which makes it fun. The basic premise is that Mr. McGreenly decides to build a vegetable garden, but as soon as the sun goes down, three bunnies go into the garden to eat the vegetables. Mr. McGreenly sees this, gets angry, and builds bigger and supposedly better defenses to keep the bunnies out.

Recommended age: 2-4 years

Writing style: Rhythmic, sound-based action words, like "muncha, muncha, muncha" fill this book. As the farmer's defenses become more and more elaborate, these words are show more repeated again and again. Despite this repetition, the word choices are hard. It would be good for introducing action words, like climb, jump, squeeze, and crawl, or directions, like over, under, across, behind, and outside.

Lexile score: AD560L
Decoding difficulty: 5/5
Vocabulary difficulty: 5/5
Sentences difficulty: 5/5
Patterns difficulty: 4/5

Illustration style: It seems like a mix of colored pencils and watercolor with very crude outlines. I don't love it. As a warning, you need to pay attention to the pictures in this book in order to understand the full story and children will likely need you to point out the bunnies at the end.

Reality-based: Growing a vegetable garden, fences, and keeping animals out are realistic, but the extreme lengths the book goes to are not. show less

Loved the word-play and the vocabulary. I have to admit that I'm feeling too unsettled by the lack of a directed interpretation to appreciate the book. I wish I knew a little child with whom to discuss the possible messages.

This book is a must for any classroom. It tackles big themes like conflict resolution and overcoming obstacles in a very silly, very ridiculous way. Readers will be delighted as Mr. McGreely's solutions to his bunny problem become increasingly outrageous and bizarre. Teachers will love the excellent use of onomatopoeia throughout the story. Overall, it's a fabulous read.

Another title by the team that brought Clever Jack Takes the Cake (one of my favorites). This one I liked, maybe not quite as much as Clever Jack. A gardener goes to extremes to keep three rabbits out of his plot, but is outsmarted at the end.

This book was the cutest! The old man in the story just could not keep the rabbits from eating all of his vegetables in his garden. He fenced it, chained, and even shoveled a stream around it. But none of these things seem to keep those rabbits out of his garden. Finally, he does something that actually does keep the rabbits from eating his vegetables, but to his the rabbits find a new way to get to his veggies! Bring you child on this outrageous journey to a garden where rabbits are not (supposed to be) allowed!