Bulletin for the Center... - 07/01/2005 Got a crowd of children who can't sit still? Have we got a readaloud for you! In this exuberant picture book from the author of Caldecott Honor book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (BCCB 9/00), bouncy, galloping meter and a beaglish canine protagonist encourage listeners to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle through the day.

Leading off with the questions "Do you wake up with a wiggle?/ Do you wiggle out of bed?", the book explores a whole catalogue of ways to wiggle—the jolly mutt wiggles (or considers wiggling) with gorillas, with his breakfast, in his polka-dotted underwear, and on the moon. Compact tetrameter alternates freely between questions ("Can you wiggle with your toys?"), advice ("Wiggle slowly when with polar bears"), and invitation ("Would you join me for a wiggle?"), with tongue-twisting repetition and alliteration combining with funny references to maximize the silliness quotient. The final pages, spattered with stars and sporting a snoring sleeper, end the book with a bedtime comment: "I think we're out of wiggles now./ See you wiggle soon!" In spite of the book's obvious narcoleptic intentions, the vivacious rhymes have such an energetic message that it will be difficult to get listeners to sit still during the reading, much less fall asleep soon afterward. That's all right, because there are plenty of other times that would be improved with a good wiggle, and sometimes a rowdy pre-bedtime wiggle is just what the doctor/dad/babysitter ordered.

For all their wiggly intentions, the illustrations are crisp and clear, confining their wiggle-indicating to flurries of movement lines and a generous sense of joyous urgency. The assertively uncluttered, digitally rendered illustrations in sunny golds and lemons over complementary pastel backgrounds command attention from a distance, a real boon to large readaloud audiences. The spreads make clever use of texture and visual depth through the use of scattered photographs of real objects interspersed on several planes with cartoon drawings that feature offset, colored fill, lending the impression of movement to most of the spreads. (Paradoxically, more peaceful layouts feature the likes of gaping-mouthed crocodiles and a pride of polar bears.) The wide-eyed, large-bodied figures evince a streamlined yet solid charm reminiscent of P. D. Eastman's characters, adding to the humorous appeal.

The real power of this book lies in the fact that it absolutely nails its preschool audience: images, text, and message are perfectly aimed at delighting bouncy youngsters with surprises and laughter, and the experience only gets better with repeated reading—even the adults present will want to shake out a wiggle or two. This effervescent offering simply howls for listeners and viewers to shimmy along, preferably at every storytime over the course of a season . . . or many seasons. With the magnetic appeal of its bold illustrations and chantable rhymes, this could well be the book remembered and sought out in decades to come, when our present young ones are toting around their own toddlers.

It's a wiggle worth sharing again and again. Get plenty of copies in rough-and-tumble covers for lending, and after storytimes, expect to hear listeners chanting the text from memory as they trundle away. - Copyright 2005 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 06/01/2005 PreS-There's not a lot of story here, but there is plenty of fun as a playful, rump-shaking pup leads toddlers through some of the many ways to move around: "Do you wake up with a wiggle?/Do you wiggle out of bed?/If you wiggle with your breakfast,/it might wind up on your head." The dog goes on to jiggle and dance with various objects and creatures before falling asleep beneath the moon. Menchin's lively, digitally rendered art incorporates elements of reality-photographic bits and pieces-that are well integrated into broad, bright cartoon illustrations. Cronin's nonsensical text is rhythmic and buoyant. Pair this sunny, silly book with Jonathan London's Wiggle Waggle (1999) or Katie Davis's Who Hops? (1998, both Harcourt) for an active storytime about animals in motion.-Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2005 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 05/01/2005 *Starred Review* It will be hard to stop a group of little ones or even a lone child from wiggling through this one; the text is that infectious. A spotted dog on the cover, vigorously working a hula hoop, leads children through a wiggling world: Do you wake up with a wiggle? / Do you wiggle out of bed? / If you wiggle with your breakfast, / it may wind up on your head. The delightful cartoon-style, ink-and-watercolor artwork is highlighted by tidbits of collage. In the case of the above quote, the picture shows the droopy canine with a photograph of a pancake planted squarely on its head. Every candy-colored page features the funny, frenetic dog involved in some furious activity, and the sense of motion and movement is palpable each time. The text is occasionally labored: Wiggle slowly when with polar bears. They're very wiggle shy. But the artwork picks up the slack so well that kids won't know what to do first: wiggle or giggle. - Copyright 2005 Booklist.