Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 1-3. Take one green chicken wing, add it to squishy squid, furry fish, and chunky chocolate milk, and you've got a recipe for a bellyache that makes swallowing a puzzle piece, as Curious George once did, seem health-conscious. One morning Rotten Ralph wakes up feeling ill, and a nibbled fish head on his pillow gives long-suffering Sarah all the information she needs: Have you been eating out of the trash can again? Off to the vet they go, where that bad red cat behaves horribly--burping in the doctor's face, for instance--even while feeling wretched. After the doctor solves his tummy trouble, he behaves even worse! The Magic-Marker intensity of Rubel's palette and the undulating quality of her lines are ideal for showing the quavery misery of nausea; in one particularly memorable spread, children see the suffering Ralph as puce-green and bloated, scavenged snacks floating around his insides. Beginning readers will gobble up this third installment of the Rotten Ralph Rotten Reader series; unlike Ralph, though, they'll have nothing to regret. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
For kids anxious about a trip to the doctor, their favorite feline may offer some assistance, in Rotten Ralph Feels Rotten: A Rotten Ralph Rotten Reader by Jack Gantos, illus. by Nicole Rubel. After he feasts on a "green chicken wing," "furry fish" and a carton of "chunky chocolate milk" from a garbage can, Ralph needs to visit the vet. It isn't long before Ralph's rottenness is back in full swing. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-In this beginning reader, Ralph and Sarah are still going strong after almost 30 years together. True to character, the rotten cat doesn't like the healthy food that Sarah feeds him, so he raids the garbage cans in the alley. Of course, he becomes ill from his foraging and must be taken to the vet, where he is kept for observation. Lonesome for Sarah, he makes his way home, where he fixes himself some snacks. Ralph's suffering and Sarah's concern are palpable in a series of vivid illustrations that depict his worsening condition, as is their pleasure in being reunited. A great addition to the series.-Sandra Welzenbach, Villarreal Elementary School, San Antonio, TX (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
(Primary) If, as the saying goes, we are what we eat, then Rotten (""born to eat trash"") Ralph has an appropriate first name. He's also the perfect star for this cautionary tale about eating junk food. After a night of foraging in the neighborhood trash cans and gorging on treats such as a green chicken wing, blue cheesecake, and chunky chocolate milk, Ralph wakes up with a tummy ache and spends the next day at the doctor's. His subsequent conversion to ""healthy"" eating (he makes himself a banana split) is so Ralph-like that fans of the series will know this slight tempering of his basic hedonistic tendencies is not the signal for a personality makeover. Four short chapters give beginning readers appropriate starting and stopping places, and the illustrations not only parallel the text but also help define a few delicious phrases, such as ""squishy squid"" and ""furry fish,"" not often found in first-grade workbooks. (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.
