Jammy Dance

by Rebecca Janni, Tracy Dockray (Illustrator)

Overview

In this rollicking bedtime story, a sister and brother turn getting ready for bed into a fun-filled dance routine, from swirling in bath towels to tapping toothbrushes and swaying down the hall to their room. Rebecca Janni's rhythmic text and Tracy Dockray's bouncy illustrations are sure to get hands clapping and the littlest of feet moving so that kids can work off a last burst of energy before sweet dreams drift in.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466810730
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	02/14/2012
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	2 - 6 Years

About the Author

Rebecca Janni is the author of Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse. She lives in central Iowa. Tracy Dockray is the illustrator of The Tushy Book, as well as Beezus and Ramona and other books by Beverly Cleary. She lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Dockray's watercolor-and-ink illustrations show the underwear-clad children gleefully jumping on the bed as they perform the refrain: "Bow to Brother./Bow to Sis./Swing your partner just like this.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

K-Gr 1—The nighttime rituals of a brother and sister are turned into a dance routine. After a bubble bath, they shimmy and shake: "Breathin' fast, no slowin' down,/Shakin' dry a soppin' crown." The frenetic energy continues with "Snappin' fingers, stompin' feet,/Tappin' toes to keep the beat." Dockray's watercolor-and-ink illustrations show the underwear-clad children gleefully jumping on the bed as they perform the refrain: "Bow to Brother./Bow to Sis./Swing your partner just like this." Dad slows the pace down with the "p.j. polka." Shortly after brushing their teeth and hearing a story, they are asleep, "Dance of Day for Song of Night/Switched with tap of bedroom light." As a bedtime read-aloud, the spirited rhyming verse may be a bit too boisterously bouncy for some.—Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada

School Library Journal

Going to bed doesn't rank high on most children's lists of favorite activities, and Janni and Dockray's attempt to transform the nighttime routine into a rollicking good time is something of a snooze. Aided by their parents, a brother and sister end their bath and go through the steps of drying off, putting on their jammies, brushing hair and teeth and so on, until they go to sleep. The text is characterized by forced, rhyming verse that will likely leave parents stumbling to read it aloud--for example, "Don't you know, takes two to untangle-- / Mom'll dance from any angle," and "Dad is callin', ‘Little folks-a. / Time to do the p.j. polka!' " Equally undistinguished art awkwardly eschews rules of anatomic proportionality and fails to settle in a particular style: Pictures are sketchy and loose in some elements and more controlled and representational in others, resulting in uneven execution. As the book ends, the siblings share the same bed even though the text has them "[s]nuggled close inside [their] beds." This final misstep provokes confusion in an already flawed overall package. With the glut of sleepy-time stories out there, this offering does not bring much new to the bedside table. (Picture book. 1-4)

Kirkus Reviews