I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:RECESS MONKEY-“Fish Sticks” (2013).

One of the best names for a kids band ever, Recess Monkey is three teachers who write funny songs that actually educate you.  Although this song doesn’t really have much educational value.

Rather, this is about a fish drummer (named “fish sticks” of course).  The guitar is cool and the bass is fun, but this song is all about the drums.  It’s a slight little ditty, but I love the way they meld all kinds of genres into the middle of the song.

I have to admit that the fish head drummer is a little creepy, but you don’t have to watch the video, right?

And, I do wish I had used this song for a different Flying Beaver Brothers book (the one that is all about Fish Stix, but oh well).

[READ: January 13, 2014] The Flying Beaver Brothers and The Mud Slinging Moles

Here’s another Flying Beaver Brothers book.  Although I enjoyed the premise of this book, I found it less satisfying to read to the kids, possibly because it had more visual jokes than wordplay.

Of course, one of the funniest things in the series is the blank looks that Bub and Ace give to the other characters when they do or say something foolish.  And those abound in this book.  Of course, it’s hard to convey that when reading aloud (although a good Huh?! often works), but it makes me laugh every time, and I’m not sure exactly why–I guess Eaton is excellent at blank looks.

So Bub wakes up to find that all kinds of things on Beaver Island are sinking–trees, rocks, even their house.  They naturally assume that Bob and Bob the evil penguins are behind it, so they go to see them.  There’s a very funny ladder joke that occurs just before the penguin house sinks. They are clearly not responsible either.

But they tell Bub and Ace to go talk to the all-knowing marmot on the mountain.  Which they do.  Although when they do reach him, he tells them that he is really a some-knowing marmot on a mountain.  And rather than helping them, he spends the whole time complaining about his brother–whom his parents like so much better.

But from the mountain they can see a large ship sailing in.  It proves to be the moles.  They are sucking out the sand from Beaver Island and replacing it with the mud from their own island.  I admit I found this a little unsatisfying, however, their method of removal, and the subsequent chaos of the loose vacuum tube was very funny.  Even funnier was Brian.  Brian is on the mole ship but he is not a mole. My kids enjoyed the simple “Hi Brian” joke (especially when it was repeated later on).

But during all of this, Ace and Bub are fighting.  Bub reveals that Ace is constantly messing up his plans.  And so Ace sets out to devise his own plan for beating the moles.  Then they begin fighting about whose plan is better. It’s a natural source of tension, but I happen to like it when they work together better.

However, there is a wonderful multi-joke at the end of the story when the brothers stand up for each other.  The question of whether the mole captain is the marmot’s brother is very very funny indeed.

So, while this wasn’t my favorite Flying Beaver Brothers story, it still made me laugh a lot, and Eaton’s drawings never fail to please.