Teeny Tiny Tingly Tales - Hardcover

Van Laan, Nancy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689818750 ISBN 13: 9780689818752

Publisher: Atheneum, 2001

Synopsis

What happens when...

Old Doctor Wango Tango, along with his rosy, blowsy, noisy nose and crew of lightweight pets, travels to the tip of a very windy hill?

Two dancing legs; two waving, whirling arms; and one big head piece themselves together?

A little old lady buries the prickly, tickly, scary, hairy toe that she's found, only to be chased by the something that wants it back?

Children will tingle with terror and shriek with glee over Nancy Van Laan and Victoria Chess's hilariously spooky -- but not too spooky -- read-aloud tales.

About this title

About the Author:

Nancy Van Laan is the acclaimed author of numerous picture books, including Tickle Tum!, Possum Come a-Knockin', a Parents' Choice Award winner, and When Winter Comes, pronounced "lilting" and "exuberant" in a starred review from School Library Journal. She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

From Publishers Weekly:

The three rhymed stories in this semi-scary collection vary in their effectiveness, but Chess's quirky illustrations will delight her many fans. Van Laan (When Winter Comes) fills the first two stories with clever wordplay and characters, but the plots fall a bit flat. In "Old Doctor Wango Tango," the author introduces the stingy doctor through diverting descriptions--plus his pets--at length. Then, in a single page, they are inexplicably blown away by a "wahooing wind." In "It," various body parts come "bounding, "whooshing" and "thumping" down the stairs one at a time, then stick together. But when IT "stroll[s] to town," the wrap-up seems abrupt. The third story appropriates the plot of the old campground ghost story about the golden arm, featuring a hairy toe instead. When the creature screeches, "Give me back my hairy toe!" the old woman returns it and happily goes back to bed. With a touch of Edward Gorey and a scruffy cast of characters, Chess (A Hippopotamusn't) lends this eccentric cast a bit of charm. She portrays the doctor and his creature companions as a sort of misfit family; the various limbs of "IT" seem to belong together even before they join up. The title page of each internal story features an engaging child reading the book who grows increasingly frightened at each tale. More droll than frightening, these teeny tiny tingly tales happily will produce only the smallest of shivers. Ages 3-7.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0689818750
• ISBN 13: 9780689818752
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Chess Victoria