Overview
Clap your hands and tap your feet to renowned wildlife artist Jim Arnosky's adorable and catchy new song/picture book that celebrates animals engaged in everyone's favorite daily activity -- eating!
If you were a wild raccoon,
You'd hunt at night by the light of the moon.
You'd catch some crawdads where they crawl,
And gobble them up -- shells and all!
From a hungry crocodile's attempt at a meal of wild ducklings, to a shark cruising for schools of fish, to a whale wrestling a wild giant squid; to a panda eating rare bamboo...... While some animals become food -- and some get away, readers will delight in seeing what and how different animals eat.
That's the way we all survive We have to eat to stay alive.
We eat the food we have, and then --
We have to hunt for food again!
Synopsis
If you were a wild raccoon,
You'd hunt at night by the light of the moon.
You'd catch some crawdads where they crawl,
And gobble them up -- shells and all!
From a hungry crocodile's attempt at a meal of wild ducklings, to a shark cruising for schools of fish, to a whale wrestling a wild giant squid; to a panda eating rare bamboo...... While some animals become food -- and some get away, readers will delight in seeing what and how different animals eat.
That's the way we all survive
We have to eat to stay alive.
We eat the food we have, and then --
We have to hunt for food again!
Children's Literature
Arnosky is an illustrator/songwriter fully within the folk artist tradition; he has written and illustrated many fascinating books about nature and folk crafts. In his performances, his songs have a folksy feel but clearly reflect the realities of nature. All those characteristics are in Gobble It Up, which he characterizes as one of his biggest crowd pleasers. Both the illustrations and the tune are upbeat and catchy, but the words make it very clear that, as cute as ducklings might appear to us, to a crocodile they are food. The refrain reiterates the point that the rule of the food chain is implacable: "That's the way we all survive./We gobble food to stay alive./We eat the food we have and then /We have to hunt for food again." Unlike most of Arnosky's nature sketches, the illustrations in this book are colorful and cheerful. The upbeat tone they create, along with Arnosky's own voice on the accompanying CD, are likely to make the song very appealing to younger children for whom the unvarnished idea of "nature red in tooth and claw" is a bit much. Reviewer: Mary Hynes-Berry
Editorials
Children's Literature -
Arnosky is an illustrator/songwriter fully within the folk artist tradition; he has written and illustrated many fascinating books about nature and folk crafts. In his performances, his songs have a folksy feel but clearly reflect the realities of nature. All those characteristics are in Gobble It Up, which he characterizes as one of his biggest crowd pleasers. Both the illustrations and the tune are upbeat and catchy, but the words make it very clear that, as cute as ducklings might appear to us, to a crocodile they are food. The refrain reiterates the point that the rule of the food chain is implacable: "That's the way we all survive./We gobble food to stay alive./We eat the food we have and then…/We have to hunt for food again." Unlike most of Arnosky's nature sketches, the illustrations in this book are colorful and cheerful. The upbeat tone they create, along with Arnosky's own voice on the accompanying CD, are likely to make the song very appealing to younger children for whom the unvarnished idea of "nature red in tooth and claw" is a bit much. Reviewer: Mary Hynes-BerrySchool Library Journal
Gr 1-3
Arnosky takes his nature storytelling one step further, adding music to the mix. This book takes a direct look at different animals and what they eat. It works well as a picture book, telling readers that if they were wild raccoons, or crocodiles, or great white sharks, they would "gobble up" crawdads, or ducklings, or fishes. The catchy song sung by the author on the accompanying CD adds the element of fun that's advertised. In recognizable, true-to-life acrylic illustrations that fill the spreads, the raccoon ambles into the forest, and a large crocodile opens its huge jaws to swallow up hapless little ducklings. The message, of course, is that this is what we must all do to survive. "We eat the food we have, and then-we have to hunt for food again!" With or without the music, this book will be sure to join Arnosky's others as favorites with youngsters eager to read about animals and with the storytime crowd as well.-Jane Marino, Bronxville Public Library, NY