Reviews – Page 148 – BookBunnies

Caramel reviews The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

Caramel and Marshmallow have been reading The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak this past week, and they cannot put it down. Caramel explains why below. Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions.

Sprinkles: What’s the deal with this book Caramel?

Caramel: It’s an awesome book!

S: What do you mean? First of all, what is it about?

C: It’s about a kid making their parent into a monkey. And other funny things.

S: What do you mean?

C: The kid is supposed to ask an adult to read the book out loud. The words of the book are so silly, and the adult has to say them all!

S: For example …?

C: Ok let me read to you a bit.

Yes, I am a monkey. Also I am a robot monkey.

And here is another one:

glug glug glug my face is a bug … I eat ants for breakfast right off the ruuuuuug!

And then there is this one:

My only friend in the whole wild world is a hippo named Boo Boo Butt!

Caramel is rereading one of his favorite pages in The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak. — Caramel is rereading one of his favorite pages in *The Book With No Pictures* by B.J. Novak.

S: And the adult is supposed to read all of this out loud?

C: Yep! It’s so funny! The whole book is full of such silly jokes.

S: And the adult is basically forced to make a fool of themselves… Right?

C: Yep.

S: Is it also fun to read on your own?

C: Yep. I laughed so much saying silly things out loud! It was so funny!

S: So why is the book titled The Book With No Pictures?

C: Because there are no pictures in the whole entire book! But the book doesn’t need any pictures. It’s awesome with or without any pictures.

S: So if you were to illustrate this book Caramel, what kinds of pictures would you add?

C: A robot monkey, ants on rugs, a monkey eating ants off the rug, a hippo named Boo Boo Butt, a robot monkey with a blueberry pizza for a head… Hmm. I want pizza now. I really want some pizza…

S: You want a blueberry pizza?

C: No. But I can also eat blueberries…?

S: Hmm. Let us get back to the book. This seems like a good transition book for kids, right? A parent who wants to encourage their kid to try and read books with not too many pictures might end up getting this for them. And then …

C: Then they would learn their lesson! Ha ha ha!

S: They would pay the price — not only of the book but also of the deed! They would need to read it out loud for their kids and then I bet the kids would be rolling on the ground laughing, listening to their adult saying things like “my best friend is a hippo named Boo Boo Butt!”

C: Ha ha ha! Boo Boo Butt! Why don’t you read this book to me Sprinkles?

S: Hmm… I’m detecting a setup here…

Caramel loves reading and having adults read The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak. — Caramel loves reading and having adults read *The Book With No Pictures* by B.J. Novak.

Marshmallow reviews Funville Adventures by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop

Marshmallow reviews a recent book published by the good folks at Natural Math: Funville Adventures by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop.

Marhsmallow reviews Funville Adventures by by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop. — Marhsmallow reviews *Funville Adventures* by by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like books that are secretly about math, then Funville Adventures might be the book for you. It is basically an adventure book about a sister and a brother, so that, too, might be of interest to some readers.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with spoilers): When an evil slide (yes, an evil slide) kidnaps the fourth grader Emmy and her five-year-old little brother Leo, they find themselves in a world full of what I will call Mathamagic.

The evil slide and Marshmallow stare at each other! Marshmallow is thinking of trying not to fall down the slide... — The evil slide and Marshmallow stare at each other! Marshmallow is thinking of trying not to fall down the slide…

In this world, called Funville, they first meet two people named Harvey and Doug. Together they play Hide-And-Go-Seek in a very unusual way. While playing, they find out that the people in this world have super powers. Harvey’s power is to halve objects in size and Doug’s power is to double objects in size. Then they go and eat lunch with Harvey and Doug’s friend Blake. Blake’s power is to erase and clean stuff. Blake applies his power on Emmy’s notebook and the outcome is not very good.

Emmy and Leo travel through Funville and come across problems. They make new friends and are invited to a birthday party. At the birthday party they recognize some familiar faces that they have met before in the time they have spent at Funville. At the birthday party, they have a good time playing Hot Potato and Musical Chairs, and eating ice cream. As you can expect the games are not the same as they are in our world. Musical Chairs needs a referee because everyone tries to cheat by using their powers. Hot Potato also is a game in which everyone attempts to cheat by either making the potato heavier or doubling the potato and ending up with two potatoes.

There is a lot more happening in Funville Adventures, but I don’t want to spoil it all for you. Why not just read it yourselves?

Marshmallow’s Review: Funville Adventures is an easy book that you can read quite quickly. It’s a chapter book, more or less, about one hundred pages long, and it is a fun book to read.

Marshmallow, intently reading Funville Adventures... — Marshmallow, intently reading *Funville Adventures*…

There are no big conflicts, no bad characters trying to hurt the people involved, and once Emmy and Leo find each other, the main story consists of the two of them exploring this new place. As the reader, it is also amusing to try and figure out the math going on.

Marshmallow’s rating: 90%

Marshmallow rates Funville Adventures by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop 90%. — Marshmallow rates *Funville Adventures* by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop 90%.

Caramel reviews The Missing Piece Meets the Big O by Shel Silverstein

The book bunnies household has been reading books by Shel Silverstein recently. After Marshmallow’s review of A Light in the Attic, now we present to you Caramel’s review of The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, by Shel Silverstein. Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions as needed.

Sprinkles: Caramel, tell us about this book.

Caramel: This is a story about independence. I think. There is a main character called The Missing Piece. It looks like a slice of pie… With no crust!

S: Yum!

C: It’s not actually a slice of pie so don’t eat the book!

S: Ok, I won’t. So what does this Missing Piece want?

C: To roll with someone. To be a part of someone. It thinks it is the missing piece from a whole and together with the rest it will make a whole.

S: Hmm, like the slice of pie looking for the rest of the pie, right?

C: Yeah, that’s a good way to think about it Sprinkles.

S: So does it find someone to roll with?

C: Yes. But only for a little while. Then it grows and doesn’t fit anymore. So the other piece leaves it behind.

S: That sounds sad. It sounds like when you grow and change, some of your friends may not be able to follow you.

C: I guess that’s kind of like the story. The Missing Piece grows but the other part doesn’t. And it gets surprised when the Missing Piece starts growing.

S: Then what happens?

C: The Missing Piece meets the Big O.

S: So who is the Big O?

C: A circle. A full circle. It has no missing pie slices taken out of it.

S: So it is a whole on its own and doesn’t need any missing pieces to complete it?

C: Right. But it says to the Missing Piece that they can roll together if it wants.

S: But the Missing Piece doesn’t know how to roll on its own, does it?

C: No, not yet. But soon it will. Because soon it starts to wear out its corners and finally can be a rolling piece itself.

S: So it gets its rough edges smoothed out and it becomes an O itself, too, right?

C: It’s a baby O! Not a Big O, but still an O and so it can roll! That sounds like us rabbits. Rabbits have baby bunny rabbits, and they can run around like the big bunny rabbits. But they have to learn. Like us.

S: So do you think this is about growing up and being independent?

C: Yes I think so.

S: Yes, I agree. I think this book is about growing up and growing apart from some of our old friends. This can be sad sometimes but then there are other friends who appreciate us growing and changing, and who continue our life journeys with us. So overall this book gives us a lot of things to think about. And it has lots of pictures. Do you like it?

C: I think it is awesome! I really like it! Can I read it to you a bit?

S: Yes, let us wrap up this review then. Till next week…

C: Stay tuned for more reading adventures with the book bunnies!

Caramel loved The Missing Piece Meets the Big O by Shel Silverstein! — Caramel loved *The Missing Piece Meets the Big O* by Shel Silverstein!

Marshmallow reviews A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

Reading The Unscratchable Itch in Caramel’s review of The Itchy Book by LeUyen Pham from last week reminded Marshmallow of Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic. Below she reviews this old favorite.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like poetry books, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Overview: This is a book of poems written for children by the author of the famous The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein. Silverstein also wrote another poetry book for children called Where The Sidewalk Ends. He also wrote The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, which Caramel wants to review some day. (Oh no, I told you what Caramel is going to review!)

Marshmallow’s Favorites: My personal favorites are Fancy Dive, Peckin’, Ladies First, and Almost Perfect. I even memorized Fancy Dive and Peckin’ already.

I like Fancy Dive because it is funny but also involves a few broken bones.

The fanciest dive that ever was dove
Was done by Melissa of Coconut Grove.
She bounced on the board and flew into the air
With a twist of her head and a twirl of her hair.
She did thirty-four jackknives, backflipped and spun,
Quadruple gainered, and reached for the sun,
And then somersaulted nine times and a quarter—
And looked down and saw that the pool had no water..
Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic

As you can tell from this example, many of the poems have an interesting twist in the end. There is a sense of Dr. Seuss in Shel Silverstein I think.

Peckin’ is very sad but humorous.

The saddest thing I ever did see
Was a woodpecker peckin’ at a plastic tree.
He looks at me and “Friend,” says he,
“Things ain’t as sweet as they used to be.
Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic.

This poem reminds me of the tragic story of Nigel, the lonely gannet. This was a bird in New Zealand that fell in love with a concrete bird and stayed with the concrete bird and eventually died. Poor Nigel was faithful to the very end.

Ladies First is a good poem and so is Almost Perfect. In both poems, the main character is an annoying person who goes through life saying the same annoying phrase over and over again. Both Mary Hume (Almost Perfect) and Pamela Purse (Ladies First) get precisely what they deserve in the end.

Marshmallow is reading Ladies First by Shel Silverstein in A Light in the Attic. — Marshmallow is reading *Ladies First* by Shel Silverstein in *A Light in the Attic*.

There are over a hundred more poems in the whole book. You should check them out yourself!

Marshmallow’s Review: Shel Silverstein’s poems are funny almost all the time — some are sad, like Cloony the Clown — but they are always well written. They all sound good; I enjoy reading many of the poems out loud to Caramel. Almost all poems in the book come with an illustration (drawn by Shel Silverstein himself) that adds to its effect.

This is overall a very good book. I am currently rereading the book for the fifth time, and I expect to be rereading it again and again in the future.

Marshmallow’s rating: 100%

Marshmallow rates A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein 100%. — Marshmallow rates *A Light in the Attic* by Shel Silverstein 100%.