Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Although couched in bombastic rhyme and grotesque illustrations, Schnitzlein's debut simply rehashes a truism: kids will do anything to avoid eating their greens. In "Night Before Christmas" verse, the boy narrator describes three encounters with a garbage beast, whose "big bloated body was broccoli-green,/ And his breath, when he sneered, reeked of rotten sardines." When the hulking creature proposes to devour the boy's peas in exchange for a soccer ball, the boy accepts. He haggles with the monster at subsequent mealtimes, but when it tries to take his dog, he desperately gulps a pea and has a Green Eggs and Ham epiphany: "That pea didn't taste like I thought that it would./ I had to admit it. That pea tasted good!" Faulkner's (The Moon Clock) fearsome illustrations recall David Catrow's hyperbolic paintings; the bloated monster, which has purple-gray tentacles and an eggplant nose, emerges from the trash and lurks under tables. Yet suspense is controlled by the clockwork verse, which steadily advances toward the boy's revelation and the banishment of the devilish tempter. For an original approach to yucky vegetables, Yaccarino and McCauley's The Lima Bean Monster (Children's Forecasts, July 30) makes a better choice. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Another yucky food story, this one told in rhyme. And it actually works. The narrator does not want to eat his peas, but risks losing out on dessert. Along comes a food monster that agrees to eat the veggies if the child gives him his soccer ball. That's fine until the dreaded morsels show up again a few days later. The monster drives a hard, Faustian bargain and, naturally, when the stakes become too high, the boy discovers that he likes peas. The rhymes flow, begging to be read aloud. Faulkner has created a truly disgusting monster with hairy feet and icky toenails, covered with slimy vegetables, too big for the page. Children will clamor to hear this one again and again.-Ann Cook, formerly at Winter Park Public Library, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A boy who hates peas makes a deal with a monster who will consume the unsavory vegetables for him in exchange for his possessions. But when the monster demands the boyÆs dog in exchange for his services, the boy decides to eat his own peas. While the story is told in wordy rhyme, it is illustrated with bold, textured paintings. From HORN BOOK Spring 2002, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Arcimboldo meets Mad Magazine as a monster that looks like a cross between an octopus and a compost pile bargains with a young narrator willing to sacrifice his prized soccer ball, and even his new bike, rather than eat peas. The creature wears a battered top hat above its many waving eyestalks and tentacles, and there's a Seussian (or Clement Clarke Moore) flavor to the rhymed text as well: "His ears were like mushrooms, his chin like a beet, / And he balanced himself on two big stinky feet," etc. Coming to regret each treasure's loss, the lad at last screws his courage to the sticking place and samples the dreaded green stuff-only (unsurprisingly) to discover that he likes it. The monster shrivels away forthwith. Though readers may find it hard to swallow the ending (and some lines of text are swallowed by the art over which they're printed), the rollicking rhythms and madcap, over-the-top art give this successor to Sarah Wilson's out-of-print Muskrat, Muskrat Eat Your Peas (1989) plenty of comic energy. On to Faust. (Picture book. 8-10)
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