Houghton Mifflin 2000
Amazon Children’s Book Top Ten
Parents Choice Recommended Winner
Brown follows his bestselling Polka Bats and Octopus Slacks with another traveling circus of poems… If Jack Prelutsky collaborated with Howard Finster, the result might look something like this.
– Publishers Weekly
…Brown introduces readers to a strange world where moons have reunions, waffles run away, people raise fleas to make money, and a magical electric guitar-playing grandma entertains crowds all over the planet. Vibrant, quirky illustrations jump off the page and perfectly match wits with the hilarious rhymes.
– Children’s Literature
Each story is told in verse that begs to be read aloud and chanted. The illustrations are in a comic folk-art style that is thoroughly hip. The far-out “plots” and silly pictures will interest younger children but older readers especially will revel in the fanciful possibilities.
– School Library Journal
Brown presents an irresistible roundup of eccentrics: the Fleakeepers, who train fleas for cash; Sir Dance-a-Lot, a knight who has traded dragon fighting for dancing; the Mysterious Fish, “Green like asparagus / Flat like a dish”; a rockin’ grandma and her “magic electric guitar”; and the wooden Dutch Sneakers of the title–“the grooviest shoes on the block . . . I don’t care if it hurts when I walk.” Brown’s paintings combine elements of folk art with swirling, energetic designs and ultrahip colors and details that match the text’s irreverent wit and fantastic scenarios. Professed poetry fans or not, young readers will choose this for reading alone or sharing with a group.
– Booklist