Review by Booklist Review
A king seeks a new chef, but no one can please the hungry monarch. His last option is an admitted wimp, Wobbly Bob. When the king orders him to catch a fish and prepare it with chips, the nervous fellow cries Help! as he imagines everything that could go wrong (a shark! A wet apron!). The king agrees to help and catches several big fish. Wobbly Bob, equally terrified of digging up potatoes, chopping them, or using a frying pan, watches the king do the work. Later, delighted with the meal, the king says, Congratulations, Wobbly Bob. / You may be a wimp, but you've got the job! Donaldson, who was the 2011-2013 British Children's Laureate, creates a rollicking, rhyming text that uses repeated lines effectively and reads aloud beautifully. The absurdity of the situation heightens the humor, which builds in the artwork as well as the text. Roberts' pencil drawings, brightened with colors that stand out against the white backgrounds, illustrate the story while adding creative details. An amusing picture book that's fun to share.--Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The redoubtable Donaldson (The Gruffalo) starts her story with a hungry king auditioning prospective cooks. He's a sensible-looking monarch with a mustache and a paunch, and from the line of be-aproned hopefuls he selects Wobbly Bob, a self-deprecating fellow with mismatched socks. But when asked to make fish and chips and to begin by gathering the ingredients, Wobbly Bob can't face the trial ("I'm scared! I'm scared! I'm terribly scared!"). In response, the king loads Bob into a Viking longboat and does the fishing for him: "''I'll help you fish,' said the hungry king,/ So he fished and he fished like anything." The gesture also establishes a pattern: the king suggests a next step, Wobbly Bob explains nervously why he can't comply ("I'm scared of worms and I'm scared of ants./ They might crawl into my nice new pants"), and the king, showing genuine sympathy, takes over the next task. Donaldson's thumping lines scan as confidently as ever, while expressive characters painted by Roberts (Rosie Revere, Engineer) transmit emotion with great versatility, from fear to absorption to embarrassed relief. The image of a king in glad collaboration offers a gentle vision of how to rule. Ages 3-7. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Donaldson and Roberts cook up a treat for young readers.After yet another soggy pizza from a box, the king decides he needs a cook "like anything." He "trie[s] out lots and lots of cooks" and decides on Wobbly Bob, who looks the part but has "feet that [shuffle] and hands that [shake]" and admits to being "a bit of a wimp." Wobbly Bob may well turn out to be more royal disaster than royal cook. The king fancies a supper of fish and chips, but Wobbly Bob is scared of everythingfishing, digging the spuds, chopping, and frying. "I'm scared! I'm scared! I'm terribly scared," is Wobbly Bob's constant refrain, but the cheerful king helps every step of the way. "He fished and he fished like anything"; "he dug and he dug like anything"; "he chopped and he chopped like anything." In fact, the king does all of the work and congratulates Wobbly Bob for the "delicious dish," which they sit down and eat together. Donaldson's lively rhyming text, tailor-made for reading aloud, is nicely complemented by Roberts' colorful illustrationsstrong on facial expressions that add to the story so that no explanation is needed when Wobbly Bob looks quizzical when the king congratulates him on his "great cooking" and gives him the job. Complexions in this medieval European-esque kingdom vary from pale to ruddy. A delicious cooking adventure that storytimers will love like anything. (Picture book. 3-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
