Don't Say That Word!
The team that did Are You Quite Polite? (2006) once again has rude fun while nearly stepping over the line. In rhyming verse and wild, watercolor and colored-pencil cartoonlike scenarios, Michael has a lot to tell about his school day. Every time he gets to the best parts of his stories, though, his mom warns him not to say "that word." He picks his nose as he tells about Rebecca, who brought birthday cookies to school and the boy who topped his cookie with a . . . Then there was the teacher at recess who threatened to punish the group and then stepped into a pile of . . . In the story's climax, it is Max's turn to yell at Mom, "Don't say that word!" From the cover with the kid suffering a time out with a big bar of soap in his mouth, the gross humor is right-on for slapstick in relaxed families that will enjoy the farce and the mischievous wordplay. Rochman, Hazel