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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607001703704 | Picture Books | WOOD | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
32 pp. Pub: 9/95. *****Not only does his mother pack weird surprises in his lunch box--like a hard-boiled egg with rabbit ears and whiskers--but his father asks him to do weird things in public, like imitate a chicken. Of course, the boy won't, so his weird father does it instead. Why can't his parents just be normal like everyone else's, or everyone else's parents be weird like his? Full-color.
Author Notes
Audrey Wood was born on August 12, 1948. She is a children's book author and illustrator. Her books include Blue Sky, Silly Sally, Weird Parents, The Red Racer, and Tugford Wanted To Be Bad. She also collaborates with her husband Don Wood on picture books. These include Moonflute, The Napping House, Tickle-Octopus, Bright and Early Thursday Evening, and The Full Moon at the Napping House.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3 --Poor kid. No matter how he tries to guide them, his weird parents are always embarrassing him. Still, he doesn't seem to mind when they let him win at Parcheesi, read comics, or carry him outside for a family backyard campout complete with ghost stories. These weird parents definitely love each other and dote on their son. Wood's exaggerated, humorous pictures leave no doubt that these parents are flamboyant originals. However, children usually note the onset of parental geekiness as they approach the age of double digits, and those readers may be put off by a picture book in which the boy appears to be about six or seven. This aside, Wood's story reflects the same outrageous good humor and child appeal so readily apparent in her collaborations with Don Wood. Watercolor-wash, pen-and-ink, and colored-pencil illustrations broadly depict the parents dressed in loud prints that contrast with the boy's sartorially correct blue jeans and T-shirt. Like the child in this story, most kids will eventually forgive parents for their idiosyncrasies, especially as they begin to develop their own. --Susan Hepler, Alexandria City Public Schools, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Everyone knows the mortification of having parents who are ``different''--and no one better than Wood, or so it would seem from this oddball and thoroughly captivating book. Her brilliantly colored paintings, awash in quirky details, are rendered with joyous abandon. In a deadpan text, she portrays the world of a conventional boy who has been cursed--or is it blessed?--with parents who are unabashedly and very publicly eccentric. Watching her son depart in the school bus, his mother would ``blow a huge kiss and press her hand to her heart.'' This poor lad's embarrassment is balanced in the end by affection, tolerance and even appreciation of his parents' oddities--feelings which, Wood skillfully suggests, coexist despite the seeming contradiction, as they indeed would in real life. Ages 4-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved