Review by Booklist Review
No, this is not in any way connected with Laura Joffe Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (2010). Its main goal, in fact, is to contrast what is usually ordered in restaurants and different eateries with what various animals (primarily Australian) would actually eat. The opening question: If an armadillo burrowed into an underground restaurant, what would she order? The silly question posed is, Spaghetti and meatballs? But, of course, the factual answer is a bit less appetizing: ants, worms, and beetles. In this manner, readers learn what animals including sea turtles, butterflies, rattlesnakes, and wallabies would like to see on their plates. The bright, happy illustrations carry the day with comical touches, like the spaghetti wrapped around the bewildered armadillo's snout, or the baguette that stretches the ostrich's mouth out lengthwise. A good companion to Michael Dahl's Do Cows Eat Cake? (2003).--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
While the title may suggest the freewheeling and unlikely chains of events of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and its ilk, Fischer and Wood actually have the opposite idea in mind. One by one, Fischer asks what nine animals might order at their local neighborhood restaurants: "If a sea turtle crawled into a lagoon buffet, what would he order? Fried chicken with gravy?" The replies are resounding ("No sir!"), followed by explanations of what the animals actually like to eat (in the case of the sea turtle, it's "Crabs and shrimp with a jellyfish on top"). Fischer's playful tone and Wood's humorous cartoons are an enjoyable combination, though the project as a whole is an odd mix of whimsy and fact. While Fischer makes it clear that a butterfly is more interested in lilac nectar than oatmeal, for example, the accompanying illustration shows the insect sipping the former through a bendy straw. While fun, the animals' anthropomorphic tendencies ("Eight forks, please" for the octopus) can seem at odds with the semi-serious aims of the text. Up to age 7. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
What do animals eat? In question-and-answer form, the human narrator compares animal restaurant orders with her own.This lengthy joke follows a repetitive pattern. There's a question that includes the usual locomotive pattern and habitat of one of nine interesting creatures. A silly answer is followed by a more sensible one. "If a RATTLESNAKE slithered through a desert cafeteria, what would she choose?" Not "[b]eans and rice" but "[s]everal rodents and a lizard." Sea turtles crawl, butterflies flutter, wallabies hop, hedgehogs "[stop] by a forest food court," ostriches run, and octopuses swim; the animals are of both sexes. The only variation in the pattern is in the pacing. Some questions and answers occupy a spread; others include the page turn. Beginning with the spaghetti-twirling armadillo on the cover, Wood's quirky creatures add to the humor, which might well spur listeners to make up some menus of their own. The author and illustrator have their giraffe eating from wild apricot trees rather than the acacias that are so prevalent in the giraffes' savanna habitat. While their diet includes wild apricots and mimosa, acacias are at its core.A good joke that lost its way a bit. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
