One, Two, Three O'Leary

by Malachy Doyle, Will Hillenbrand (Illustrator)

'Ibble obble, blue bottle, ibble obble out! Turn your silk pyjamas inside out!' Ten O'Leary children are tucked snug in bed--but not for long! One by one they bounce out of the bed ...and the fun continues, even as Dad gets ready to go to his nighttime job while trying to settle his little ones down once more. Malachy Doyle draws upon the traditional Irish rhymes that he loved as a child in this delectable, rhythmic book. With fun, lively illustrations by Will Hillenbrand a bedtime game comes to life!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Malachy Doyle is the author of Antonio on the Other Side of the World, Getting Smaller and many other books for children. He lives in Donegal, Ireland.

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes several traditional folk rhymes.

[Elissa Genry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is filled with nonsense rhyming words talking about a family of children jumping out of bed. They all are very silly, playing cheerfully with each other and their pets. It doesn't really have much of a story line.

This book was definitely for younger children, and I didn't enjoy it very much. I did like the use of onomatopoeias and rhyming nonsense words which children would giggle at and enjoy.

This book could be used in a classroom to discuss rhyming and onomatopoeias.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun and rollicking story that features several different rhyming ditties that you can easily imagine children chanting as they frolic and play in the bedroom.

Our girls laughed at the tongue-twisting nature of the rhymes and giggled at the hilarious illustrations. We discussed what it would be like to have ten children in our family instead of two and what fun...and noise it would bring.

We loved the fireman's pole in the ceiling, too! We discussed how it is funny that the children are being pushed off the bed one by one, but that someone would likely get hurt in the process, so that it's not something that should be imitated.

This book is perfect for bedtime stories, but I would read it first, as it's not likely to help children settle down - more likely they will want to have a jump and play session instead!

[Heather Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was really dumb and made absolutely no sense, However doing an Amazon search I see that it is a kids game and has some folklore and historical meaning so maybe if I knew the history I would appreciate the book.

[Danica Midlil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traditional irish nursery rhymes strung together for a loose plot.

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

My 4yo daughter picked this out from the library. It was pretty lame....