Top 100 Picture Books #70: Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas

#70 Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas (2009)
27 points

Another favorite read aloud.  You get to do funny voices for Ed, Ned, Ted and especially the prone to (not unwarranted) hysteria, Bob.  It’s also a great call and response book that lets kids answer the question of “What rhymes with…?”  When I was a bookseller, I would sell at least one copy every time I read it. – Sharon Thackston

Can you honestly believe that the last time I conducted this poll Jan Thomas didn’t make an appearance on it anywhere?  I suppose it makes a bit more sense when you consider how the poll was conducted in 2009 and that was when Ms. Thomas was just beginning to create delicious books like the one featured here today.  So it is with great pleasure that I welcome her to the Top 100 list. Hello, Jan!  Glad you could make it.

The description from my review reads, “Meet the rhyming dust bunnies: Ed, Ned, Ted, and Bob. As they like to say ‘We rhyme all the time!’ On this particular day Ed starts them off with wondering ‘Hey! What rhymes with car?’ Everyone puts in a vote except for Bob. Bob’s sort of staring in the distance and saying things like ‘Look!’ and ‘Look Out!’ The other bunnies are confused by Bob’s seeming inability to rhyme. Even when he says ‘Look out! Here comes a big scary monster with a broom!’ they’re not quite catching on. Finally he screams out ‘Run for it!’ and the troop run and hide under a dresser. However, when they attempt to restart their rhyming antics, ‘sat’ ‘pat’ and ‘rat’ are completed with Bob’s timely ‘vacuum cleaner!’ and with a mighty ‘Thwptt’ off they go.”

The urban legend about Ms. Thomas’s rise is that she was an SCBWI discovery.  An editor was doing manuscript consultations, saw the work Ms. Thomas had done for the picture book What Will Fat Cat Sit On? and signed her right there and then.  Is it true?  Haven’t a clue, really.  That sort of thing almost never happens, but it makes for a good tale.  As for this particular book it did inspire the sequel going by the name of Here Comes the Big Mean Dust Bunny in which our heroes suffer at the hands of a malevolent dusty fiend.

PW wasn’t entirely on board when they said of it, “Although a little sketchier than Thomas’s previous works, such as What Will Fat Cat Sit On?, this book is just as funny and snappy-looking.”

Indeed School Library Journal was far more positive when it said, “This book will make readers laugh; it will teach them to rhyme; it will enchant them and make them think twice every time they see a vacuum cleaner.”

Ditto Booklist with, “Preschoolers will recognize how it feels to be big but just a mite in a grown-up world, and they will enjoy the playful rhymes and simple wordplay as much as the bold scenarios of the tiniest creatures in danger from giants, and one hero who sees it coming.”

And Kirkus was entirely won over when they said, “With their wide noses, long ears, four-fingered paws and buck teeth, these fuzzy characters are a riot. Put away your cleaning supplies for a little messy fun.”

In terms of Dust Bunny costumes, nobody beats these guys.  Nobody.

If you’d care to watch me read the book that is something I can provide:

Filed under: Best Books, Top 100 Picture Books Poll