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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | WABER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | FOOD WABER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | JP Wab | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Things are hopping! Things are popping in fast food town!" Meet Speedy Lane, Jiffie Snack, Whiz-Bang Ewing, and all the folks responsible for getting the food out and eaten fast. The pace speeds through this book, until finally the cook has had enough. She leaves to work at a health food place "slowly serving nature's greenery, to folks taking time to enjoy the scenery." Waber hilariously poses the question, What's the rush?
Author Notes
Bernard Waber was born in 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and educated at the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied art at the Philadelphia College of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He wrote and illustrated numerous children's books including The House on East 88th Street, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Lyle at Christmas, Ira Sleeps Over, and Ira Says Goodbye. He died on May 16, 2013.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Waber serves up a tasty treat of deliciously rhymed text and appetizingly animated illustrations. These fast-food patrons want their food fast, and the pace of the story quickens into a maddening dash of orders and consumption until Colonel Mane's cook quits, leaving to work in a health-food caf where the fare is savored slowly. All manner of animals in dresses, suits, and hats romp across the pages, munching everything from pizza to fries to burgers to buffalo wings. Pigs and hippos crop up a lot, as well as monkeys. They gobble noisily ("Chew! Chew!/Chomp! Chomp!/Oink! Oink!/Grunt! Grunt!"), faster and faster, until Jiffy Jack the rabbit serves meals that can be eaten in 30 seconds and Lone Cat Mewing "rustles up meals/ you can eat/without chewing." Who can blame the cook for abandoning funnel cakes for parsnip fritters? Waber's culinary masterpiece is a perfect read-aloud, and a cunning consideration of our frenzied lives.-Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
PW called this homage to some favorite foods "a satisfying morsel that kids will eagerly devour." Ages 4-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Kids will vicariously enjoy the feast as the population of Fast Food Town races around preparing and eating all kinds of yummy junk food. Finally, one of the cooks quits and starts working at a health-food restaurant, slowly preparing / nature's greeneryà / for folks taking time / to enjoy the scenery. Though abrupt, the conclusion is amusing, and Waber's rhyming text and familiar animal characters have appeal. From HORN BOOK Fall 2002, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Kids are prime targets of fast food chain marketing, with a corresponding decline in juvenile nutrition that concerns parents and health professionals. Waber (The Mouse That Snored, 2000, etc.) takes a humorous, gently chiding look at our national tendency to grab and gorge with a rollicking, rhyming text incorporating lists of sound-effect words in staccato couplets. ("Slurp, slurp! Burp, burp!") His whimsical watercolors show a variety of anthropomorphic mammals chowing down on both familiar fast food fare and all sorts of additional restaurant dishes that kids like. The confusing story line cuts between a food court and three fast food restaurants, all owned by take-charge male animals who demand ever-faster eating. A closer view of one restaurant shows an all-male counter crew and an all-female kitchen crew, with a female cook (a pig) who abruptly quits because she can't take the pace. She moves on to a better job at the Veggie Hut, whose patrons enjoy "taking time to enjoy the scenery." Some snide rhyming couplets from the fast food customers describe her descent "into a snit." ("Began to pout." "Then walked out.") We all need fewer french fries and more broccoli, but we don't need to see an old-boy network of exclusively male business owners, an outmoded view of an emotional female in the kitchen, or sensitive vegetarians. Humorous illustrations, confusing setting changes, and outmoded stereotypes don't add up to a Happy Meal. (Picture book. 4-8)