num_pages: 64
description: A scraggy, scrappy assortment of animals find a newspaper account of the Olympics (in-joke fanciers will do well to read the fine print thereof) and decide to organize their own games. The arrangements and "getting in shape" proceed amicably (the ants even volunteer to form a starting line) and -- with worm, whose talent for wiggling seems unsuited to any of the scheduled events, acting as cheerleader -- the races themselves become a kind of loosely satisfying mutual admiration celebration. In the end even worm finds a niche in the competition, substituting for a missing baton in the relay race and inching over the finishing line when the duck who is carrying him falls while waving to the crowd. The playfulness extends even to the naming of the animals' teams (the Yankees, the Tigers and the Pirates) and makes this effort competitive with any of the humor on the easy reader shelf.
language: English
title: On Your Mark, Get Set, Go! The First All-Animal Olympics
titlecomplete: On Your Mark, Get Set, Go! The First All-Animal Olympics
genres: Picture Books
ratings_count: 15
publisher: Harper & Row