If All the Animals Came Inside

by Eric Pinder, Marc Brown (Illustrator)

Overview

The walls would tremble. The dishes would break.
Oh, what a terrible mess we would make!

If all the animals came inside, bears would run down the stairs, kangaroos would bounce on the couch, and hippos would play hide-and-seek through the halls! Join one family's wild romp as animals of all shapes and sizes burst through the front door and make themselves right at home.

Extraordinary collage artwork from beloved illustrator Marc Brown (Arthur series) pairs with Eric Pinder's hilarious rhyming verse to make this the perfect book to read aloud again and again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316098830
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/17/2012
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,303,355
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Marc Brown is the creator of the bestselling Arthur Adventure book series and creative producer of the number-one children's PBS television series, Arthur. He has also illustrated many other books for children, including Wild About Books and Dancing Feet!. Marc lives with his family in Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard.

Eric Pinder is the author of the non-fiction picture book Cat in the Clouds, published by The History Press in May 2009. He has also written a number of books for adults, and has been published in national magazines, including Slate and Newsday. Eric teaches at Chester College of New England and has an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Editorial Reviews

The hypothetical situation suggested by the title has ample comedic (and chaotic) potential, and Pinder and Brown mine it. “If all the animals came inside,/ my brother would cry. My sister would hide,” says the narrator, a boy who’s happy to join in the destructive fun. He relays various antics the animals would get up to, along with their theoretical results. “When all the animals wanted a snack,/ the skunk and the panda and even the yak/ would rush to the kitchen and chew up our food./ Mommy would tell them to stop being rude.” Readers who can look past the tense oddities, as Pinder (Cat in the Clouds) attempts to describe imagined future pandemonium in the past tense, will find plenty of raucous entertainment, with the boy playing hide-and-seek with monkeys, dashing up the stairs with bears, and taking a bath with an octopus. Brown goes for (and achieves) maximum physical comedy in dynamic cut-paper collage art reminiscent of his work for Dancing Feet! (2010), but the awkward syntax is a letdown. Ages 2–6. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary Agency. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 2—A boy imagines what would happen if all the animals he could think of came into his house and relates the ensuing chaos with relish. "The walls would tremble. The closets would quake./Oh, what a terrible mess we would make!" With pitch-perfect timing, Pinder uses the same rhythm long enough to explore the structure but avoids tedium through subtle changes. At first the child is simply thrilled by the mayhem, but as the havoc starts affecting him personally (the animals misuse his toys and hog the TV), he becomes less pleased. As his feeling change, so does the rhythm of the verse. As day ends, the youngster concludes that it was fun to have all the animals inside, but ultimately he's content with his dog and kitten. Using cut paper painted with gouache and decorated with photographic elements, the always-lively Brown seems to have taken particular joy in creating these bright illustrations. Showcasing a perfect synthesis of the cartoon style he made famous with "Arthur" (Little, Brown) and his more recent collage-style work, the artist is in top form. Don't leave this rollicking "what if" adventure out in the cold.—Anna Haase Krueger, Antigo Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

A young boy imagines the riot that would ensue if his house were overrun with wild animals. "The lions would roar as they sprawled on the floor. / The lemurs would lollygag right by the door. / My daddy would try to sit down in his chair. / He'd holler and whoop with a porcupine there!" The hodgepodge of animals ranges from forest chipmunks and savanna giraffes to Australian kangaroos and even an octopus. And they all come with mischief in mind. Pinder neatly describes the chaos that this bunch could cause. From ruining the furniture and eating all the food to taking up the comfiest places, they would eventually leave no room for the boy and his family, relegating them to sleeping outside. And in fact, the boy wisely decides in the end that, as much fun as all the animals might be, he will be satisfied with just his cat and dog. The rhyming verses have a nice rhythm, and a repeated refrain allows listeners to join in. Brown uses a similar style to his illustrations in Lindsay Craig's Farmyard Beat and Dancing Feet (2011, 2010), but the corrugated-looking collages that incorporate photographic elements are not as successful here. The details tend to get lost in all the texture. Still, the animal antics are priceless, and the boy's transformation from joyful participant to disgruntled observer is easy to see. All the fun of imagination without the mess of reality. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews

Brown's first venture into collage has a carload of enthusiasm behind it, along with this seasoned artist's knack for communicating directly with children via humor. The story, told in nicely turned, high-energy verse, is a child's fantasy of what might happen if a horde of animals were to move in. It's a farcical, made-for-slapstick premise…
—The New York Times Book Review

Leonard S. Marcus

Read More