Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 1. Tangled like spaghetti / Slithery and sweaty. The author and the illustrator of Bugs! (1997) and Skunks! (2001) present another hilarious book with a slapstick rhyme, this one about snakes taking over a small boy's world. The creepy creatures start off as a heap under his bed; then they slink down the stairs, shimmy up the walls, hide, and jump out of books and cabinets. Words and pictures wallow in the shudders. Maybe snakes do have some uses: as garden hoses, for cleaning ears, as nifty stethoscopes. But just as the boy is getting used to the invaders, he opens up the shutter to find a huge glaring eye, and then a great, terrifying boa squishes him in its coils. Is that final close-up a capture or an embrace? Munsinger's ink-and-watercolor images extend the silliness. They are packed with nonsense detail and yet clear and accessible for preschoolers, who will recognize the creepy delight of slimy monsters hissing in their ears. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In their latest fiendish take on a maligned species, Snakes! by David T. Greenberg, illus. by Lynn Munsinger, slithery reptiles take center stage. An otherwise brave main character and his puppy find their home terrorized by "[a] hundred thousand salivating snakes!" The tone moves from ominous to playful: "Snakes as playground swings/ Snakes as teething rings." But even after he has seemingly conquered his fear, one final twist (or constriction, more precisely) awaits the boy. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-Fans of Slugs! (1983), Bugs! (1997), and Skunks! (2001, all Little, Brown) will welcome this latest addition to Greenberg's gross-out canon. A boy and his terrier have no problem with wrestling squids or battling sharks, but they balk at snakes. Naturally, they are beset by every possible variety, at every possible turn. There are snakes heaped under the bed and on the stairs, and, "With a herculean grasp,/A multicolored asp/Nonchalantly shimmies up a wall." The poetry flows easily and is filled with inventive alliteration and quirky humor: "A speckled anaconda/Steals the family Honda/And races down the driveway in reverse." There is some challenging vocabulary ("pyroclastic," "phosphoresce"), but children will likely be more than willing to make the stretch. Munsinger's watercolor illustrations strike the right balance between cute and creepy as boy and dog try to evade the slithery serpents. Not an essential purchase, but fun, particularly if the other titles are popular.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ (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
(Preschool, Primary) To Bugs!, Skunks!, and Slugs, mischief meister Greenberg adds snakes in all their insinuative creepiness. Where the previous books were agreeably gross, this one is more interested in at least initially giving readers a bit of a fright: ""You can feel it in your ear / Hideously near / Then something heavy slides across your toes."" But silliness soon enough takes hold (""A speckled anaconda / Steals the family Honda"") as the young hero of Munsinger's adept watercolors conquers his fear--and the snakes. The tercets are witty and expertly rhymed, and there's enough variety in the direction of the humor to keep the text from monotony. Although the story ends with a bwa-ha-ha mock-shiver, it's never too scary, and the sunny colors of the pictures, each one crawling with serpents both real and fanciful, augment the levity of the verse. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A good and creepy (slithery just doesn't capture the reason your neck hairs may stand on end) story of a boy and the uninvited snakes in his life, from Greenberg (who likes his creatures on the outrÉ side: he has also tackled insects, skunks, and, famously, slugs). What is so effective here--other than Munsinger's swarming, snaky watercolors--is that Greenberg never gets cute, but keeps the verse highly palpable: "With a horrifying rustle / Of cartilage and muscle / Very very slowly they unwind / Tongues abruptly flickering / Whispering and snickering / They wriggle off to see what they can find." Greenberg does, however, know how to mix the fanciful with the real. "Reticulated belly snakes / sea snakes, tree snakes / Peanut-butter jelly snakes / Hyperactive flea snakes." And Munsinger wraps her considerable wit around every loopy possibility, ensnaring her readers in a final constrictor-like hold. Come, child, and enjoy a snake or two, these "pyroclastic streams of melted crayon." (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
