Characters and characteristics in literature -- Juvenile fiction. |
Nursery rhymes -- Juvenile literature. |
Character sketches -- History and criticism |
Characterization (Literature) |
Literary characters |
Literary portraits |
Portraits, Literary |
Rhymes, Nursery |
Available:
Library | Shelf Number | Shelf Location | Status |
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Searching... Pembroke Public Library | JE STEVENS, J. | PICTURE BOOKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... East Bridgewater Central School | STE | EASY READERS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... East Bridgewater Public Library | STE | PICTURE BOOKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Elizabeth Taber Library | JE STE | PICTURE BOOKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Fairhaven-Millicent | JE STEVENS | PICTURE BOOKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Fall River Main | JE | CHILDREN STACKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... James White Memorial, E. Freetown | JJ FIC STE | PICTURE BOOKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mansfield Public Library | JJ FIC STEVENS | PICTURE BOOKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Norfolk H. Olive Day School | P STE | PICTURE BOOKS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Rehoboth - Blanding Free PL | S | PICTURE BOOKS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Every night the rhyme gets read. Every night Dish and Spoon run away. And every night they return--until tonight!
Where can Dish and Spoon be? The rhyme can't go on without them, so Cat, Cow, and Dog set out to search for their missing friends. But where to start? Should they go north? East? Northeast? They'll just have to read Fork's map, ask directions, and try not to get lost in Little Boy Blue's haystack or under Miss Muffet's tuffet or in Big Bad Wolf's kitchen--"FEE, FI, FO . . ." Oh no. Could that be the giant?
Reviews (5)
Horn Book Review
(Primary) This postmodern version of a classic nursery favorite pays homage to the past yet acknowledges contemporary sensibilities in a piquant combination of sprightly text and large, impeccably drawn illustrations. Caldecott transformed ""Hey Diddle Diddle"" into a wonderfully energetic story of star-crossed lovers but focused on the original text, embellishing but not changing. Stevens and Crummel use the traditional rhyme as the start of a merry dream sequence in which dish and spoon disappear one night, thus preventing the repetition of what seems to have been a nightly ritual for all concerned. The efforts of the other characters+Cat, Dog, and Cow+to locate the missing pair is the organizing theme of an inventive, amusing farce that blends elements of Gilbert and Sullivan with Monty Python and Mel Brooks. Encounters with familiar personages+Boy Blue, Miss Muffet's spider, the Big Bad Wolf+in wildly manipulated versions of their familiar roles add to the comedy, as do allusions to contemporary idioms or other nursery rhymes. Jack (of Beanstalk fame) now operates a repair shop with the slogan ""You blew it, I glue it,"" a pivotal point in the resolution of the dilemma. Even the endpapers are part of the whole, serving as prologue and epilogue by depicting the various personae as inanimate objects surrounding a book of Mother Goose rhymes on top of a bed, setting the story in the context of a dream where anything can happen and where events have their own logic. The real audience for this book is not preschoolers but those already familiar with the original and somewhat conversant with the art of irony; it's a New Yorker version of a nursery tale+and it's must reading for anyone who's reached the age of reason. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-A familiar Mother Goose rhyme is transformed into a rollicking picaresque adventure for school-aged children. The tongue-in-cheek humor requires a more mature reader to appreciate the wordplay and wry sarcasm of what amounts to a fractured fairy tale. This childhood standard begins to go haywire when the dish runs away with the spoon and the two fail to return. The cat, the cow, and the dog realize that they must set off in pursuit of their literary companions or their rhyme will be unavailable for reading in the evening to come. Their characters become quickly evident. The fiddling cat is a Type A organizer, the cow tends toward indolence, and the little dog is a cynical curmudgeon. When they have managed their interpersonal dynamics well enough to form a rescue party, they first encounter a literal four-pronged "fork in the road" that has indeed seen the errant place setting and agrees to "take a stab" at drawing a map of the folkloric kingdom. Little Boy Blue, Miss Muffet's spider, the Big Bad Wolf, and Jack and the beanstalk all make appearances during the quest. The disappearance is at last resolved happily, but not without a dash of danger and travail. Stevens's distinctive illustrations lend a great deal of personality and vitality to this droll expanded retelling. A familiarity with Mother Goose will greatly enhance readers' appreciation of this story but, even with that, some of the puns and double entendres may go over youngsters' heads. Still, those sophisticated enough to get it will love it.-Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The creators of Cook-a-Doodle-Doo! here serve up a concoction of visual treats and broad jokes as Cow, Cat and Dog search for their missing colleagues, Dish and Spoon. After previewing a page with the famous rhyme from Mother Goose, the authors showcase an alarmed feline rousing a reluctant Dog and Cow: "EVERYBODY UP! They didn't come back!" The cow, exhausted from his jumping, suggests that they simply eliminate the lost duo from the rhyme altogether: "We could end it, `and the cow took a nap until noon.' " Puns fly freely as the trio begin their search and come to a Hawaiian shirt-sporting fork (in the road), who says that he had spotted the missing characters; the utensil offers to "take a stab at" drawing them a map to aid the quest. Map in hand, the friends encounter an array of nursery-rhyme characters, including Spider, who regrets having frightened away Little Miss Muffet; and Wolf, dressed in a festive apron and bunny slippers, who attempts to lure Dog into a vat of boiling water. Additional stanzas to the original rhyme, which run along the sides of white-framed vignettes, help chronicle the ultimately successful hunt. Droll flourishes fill this Caldecott Honor artist's animated watercolor and colored-pencil pictures, enhanced by photographic and digital elements. Kids will gobble this up. Ages 5-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Ages 5-8. Children who know their nursery rhymes--and nursery tales--will best appreciate this extension of the familiar rhyme that begins, "Hey diddle diddle." In this version, the characters discover that Dish and Spoon have not returned after running away together the night before. Cat, Dog, and Cow set out to find the pair and restore them to their rhyme before it gets read again. On their quest, they come to a fork in the road--a fork dressed in a loud, flowered shirt and sunglasses--who notes that he's from the same table setting as the spoon. This visual pun reflects the many comical plays on words in the text. Though a little long for preschoolers, the story will amuse kindergarten and primary-grade children, who have the best chance of "getting" the jokes. Their journey takes them to such literary landmarks as Little Boy Blue's haystack, the Big Bad Wolf's house, and Jack's beanstalk before they find their cohorts and return to their illustration. Stevens does a fine job of digitally integrating scanned objects such as cloth into the illustrations while subordinating those elements to the picture as a whole. The oversize, double-page spreads are best seen at a little distance, where their overall design is more evident. Brimming with energetic line and movement, the watercolor-and-colored pencil work includes many amusing details to delight observant children. --Carolyn Phelan
Kirkus Review
The creators of Cook-A-Doodle-Doo! (1999) spin off a freewheeling yarn from a familiar nursery rhyme, salting their tale with awful puns and peppering it with folktale references. When Dish and Spoon run away as theyre supposed to, but fail to come back, Cat, Dog, and Cow set off to track them down. (Without Dish and Spoon, theres no rhyme. No more diddle, diddle. Its over.) Following a giant, very funny map drawn for them by a Fork in the road, the seekers awaken Little Boy Blue, question a huge, lonely spider sitting on a certain tuffet, and are nearly served up by a Big Bad Wolf (in bunny slippers) before finding the errant table setting at lastat the foot of a certain beanstalk. Stevens fills her sprawling, exuberant pictures with hilarious details, from the lamb suit and red cloak hanging on Wolfs coat rack to the trio of furry customers in dark glasses getting their tails reattached in Jacks Repair Shop (You blew it, I glue it). Dish has suffered a great fall, but Jack nimbly puts her back together, and all leap back to their places just in time to resume (with a slight modification) their traditional roles. Required reading for all Jacks and Jills. (Picture book. 5-9)