Review by Booklist Review
When young Elsie Cannon yells to her family that there's "a great big gray thing under the table," her dad and her brother rush indoors to find an elephant. At Elsie's suggestion, he helps them wash the car. That afternoon, after Elsie yells that there's "a big brown bouncy thing . . . with a pocket" under the table, they find a kangaroo with her joey that help Mrs. Cannon carry the groceries into the house. After Elsie discovers two penguins in the refrigerator, the fun really begins. The Cannon parents take the whole family (along with their pets, visiting animals, and sentient household cutlery, teapot, and ketchup bottle) to the beach for a vacation. It's hard to describe how the loud voices and surprising revelations about the Cannon family translate so readily into high spirits, cooperation, and joy, but they do. The narrator's tone is engaging, and so is the look of spontaneity and happiness in the jaunty illustrations, created with colored pencil, ink, acrylic, and watercolor. A respected English children's book writer ever since the publication of his first book, Each Peach Pear Plum (1979), Ahlberg offers a rambunctious new picture book that's well attuned to a young child's sense of fun and great for reading aloud.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
In this tale of humorously escalating adventure and silliness, Elsie discovers a series of animals under the family dining table, an extravagant catalog that includes an elephant, kangaroo, and penguin. What to do with such a zoo? In each case the visitor finds a useful role in the family (e.g., car-washing, unloading groceries). The form and tone of the narrative beautifully capture the experience of an adult co-creating a story with a young child on the spot. The pleasures of pattern; the back-and-forth of improvisation; delicious, suspenseful page-turns; and the loopy energy of a plot twist coming in from left field -- all add up to a warm and jokey conversation happening in the immediate present. "There was once a girl. Elsie, her name was -- yes, Elsie Cannon." Ingman's naive-style paintings in primary colors, reminiscent of Ludwig Bemelmans, are perfectly suited to the flavor of the tale as they pursue and develop their own subplots. An anthropomorphic boiled egg, piano stool, saltshaker, and cutlery add an obbligato of animation, comedy, and naughtiness. What happened to Mildred the family cat? Oh, there she is, sipping lemonade at the picnic. And what about Bertie, that boiled egg who appears on almost every spread? Is he possibly our unidentified narrator? Ahlberg, a veteran of almost fifty years of picture book writing, pulls yet another irresistible rabbit out of his storyteller's hat. Sarah EllisMarch/April 2024 p.55 (c) Copyright 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
What's that hiding under the table? Elsie is an active, blond-haired young girl who lives with her parents, brother, dog, and cat in a world much like this one, with some key differences. Seemingly inanimate objects--forks, knives, ketchup, a teapot--can move by themselves, and, more importantly, Elsie keeps finding animals (an elephant, a mother kangaroo with a joey) under the table…as well as a pair of penguins in the fridge and on the counter. Sketchy illustrations blend well with the off-the cuff feeling of the text as, playing against type, her family embraces her very real discoveries. The elephant helps them wash the car, the kangaroo helps take in the groceries, and the penguins' presence leads to a camper trip to the beach for people and animals alike (the table comes, too), where they frolic, swim, eat, and meet an army of ants, all with names starting with the letter A. It's off to bed, and the story seems to be over, but what's that hippopotamus doing under the table? Young listeners will be tickled by the pleasingly nonsensical plot; they'll giggle through this quirky and imaginative tale of a lively girl and her warm, supportive family before drifting off to sleep themselves. Main characters are light-skinned. A whimsical, rib-tickling good-night book for the very young. (Picture book. 2-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
