Simply Delicious - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 2 Mr. Minky is on his way home when he stops at Muffin's Corner Shop to buy a treat for his son. He purchases a "double-dip-chocolate-chip-and-cherry ice cream with rainbow twinkles and chopped-nut sprinkles." How will he get it home before it melts? By taking a shortcut through the jungle! Riding his bike through the "lumpy. bumpy, jungle track," he is challenged by butterflies, a toucan, a spider monkey, a tiger, and a crocodile. It takes some creative juggling and ferocious footwork on his bike, but Mr. Minky and his ice cream make it home in time. Mahy has fun with the rhythm of her story, with each animal repeating the long name of the treat, and ending with a chorus of "simply delicious!" The story should be read aloud, as young listeners will readily chime in and add their voices to the refrain. The illustrations are crisp, colorful, and childlike with jungle greens spreading out over white backgrounds and polka-dotted butterflies flitting after the elusive speckled cone. Pair this with Shel Silverstein's poem "Eighteen Flavors" for a simply delicious storytime double scoop. Lisa Gangemi Krapp, Rockville Centre Public Library, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mr. Minky has a problem. He's just bought a double-dip chocolate-chip-and-cherry ice cream cone with rainbow twinkles and chopped sprinkles for his little boy, Finnegan. But how is he to get it home before it melts? "I know!" he declares. "I'll take a short cut down the lumpy, bumpy jungle track. It runs right into my own back garden." So off he goes on his faithful bike, holding the cone aloft like the Statue of Liberty's torch, waving it around to keep it cool. This soon attracts the attention of a growing number of hungry jungle animals. With them in hot pursuit, Mr. Minky resorts to some inspired ice cream acrobatics to save the sweet treat. Mahy's cumulative tale is inherently suspenseful and, with its own sprinkling of alliteration, will be great fun to read aloud. Illustrator Allen, who has collaborated with Mahy twice before, captures the rhythm of the text and adds to the fun with droll depictions of the devious--and persistent--jungle denizens. Michael Cart