Pass It On

Publishers Weekly

When Cow gets stuck in a fence, Bee springs into action: “Bee buzz-buzzed to Frog’s pad and said: ‘Cow is stuck in the fence. Pass it on!’ ” As the message travels, however, it gets mangled beyond recognition. “Cow has money. Pass it on!” shouts wide-eyed Kitten to Mouse, who’s hanging out in the cupboard with the canned veggies and tuna. As befits the vintage nature of the game of telephone, Slack’s (Monkey Truck) artwork conjures images of early Golden Books like The Little Red Hen and The Poky Little Puppy. Frog, sitting on a lavender mushroom playing with a yoyo, has appendages reminiscent of a 1950s atomic starburst design; bright blue Goose strums a guitar in a finale that has the animals celebrating Cow’s eventual rescue with a milk-and- honey party in the barn. Sadler (the P.J. Funnybunny series) writes economically while maintaining a sense of both urgency and comedy, the latter surfacing in speech-bubble asides, as well as the catapult-to-the-butt that eventually frees Cow. Ages 4–up. Agent: Lori Nowicki, Painted Words. (June)

Children's Literature - Tima Murrell

Bee cannot find his friend, Cow. When Bee finally finds his friend, he realizes that Cow is stuck. Bee dashes off to find someone to help him. He asks his friend Frog for assistance and then returns to Cow. Frog, in turn, passes on the message of help. Each time the message is repeated it gets changed just a little bit. Soon Bee and Cow are joined by a large group of animals wanting something different based on the message that they received. Cow gets the assistance she needs and offers to feed them honey and milk as a way of saying thank you. The book plays on the popular children's game telephone, and each message rhymes in some way as it is passed along. The detailed and expressive illustrations help tell the story and add a touch of whimsy. It is simple enough for an early reader to be able to read solo. Reviewer: Tima Murrell

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1—The game of telephone gets awkwardly rehashed in this appealing if unoriginal collaboration. Bee looks everywhere for Cow, who turns out to be stuck in the fence. To get help, he goes to Frog and tells him Cow's predicament, requesting that he "pass it on." Frog goes to Pig and says, "Cow put a duck in the tent. Pass it on!" Pig tells Goose an entirely different story, etc., until all the animals converge on the cow for various reasons, help push her out of the fence, and she and Bee reward everyone with milk and honey. The story is slight, but the minimal text reads aloud smoothly, albeit with a few superfluous uses of so-and-so "said." However, literal-minded youngsters may wonder why Bee didn't just request help from each animal directly, and the outrageous changes each creature makes strain credulity. The artwork is bright and modern-looking, with bug-eyed, cartoonish animals depicted in bold colors. Slack takes full advantage of the absurdity here by placing each animal's bizarre statement in a dialogue bubble. The simple text and large illustrations lend themselves well to reading aloud, and the word bubbles have the potential to encourage use by emergent readers. Unfortunately, the omission of whispering adds to the lack of internal logic. However, this would be useful in a classroom discussion of good listening skills and accurate message delivery. Fun, but additional.—Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT

The New York Times Book Review

Each message is escalated into greater heights—or depths—of absurdity, gleefully depicted in Slack's retro Tibor Gergely-style illustrations.
—Pamela Paul