Yuck!

by Mick Manning, Brita Granstrom

"This baby slurps a rotten egg that is all stinky and smelly. That's not our baby's supper. Yuck!" With a funny and rhythmic text perfect for reading aloud, this fun "gross-out" information book for young children is about animal babies — a crow, lizard, osprey, toad, and owl -and the foods they like to eat — a worm tugged out of the ground, a stinky rotten egg, a spider with eight hairy legs, a whole raw fish, a crunchy beetle, and a furry rat. The authors' colorful artwork and natural history background make this book both lively and educational.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Food, Storytime, Nature, Science

24 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2005

About the author

Manning went to school in Keighley and then studied at at Bradford College. He studied illustration and graphic design at Newcastle Polytechnic (now the University of Northumbria) 1979 - 82 and then illustration and animation at the Royal College of Art London 1984-87 . Later he devised and ran the BA honours Illustration option at the Glasgow School of Art while maintaining a freelance career. In 1998 he resigned to concentrate on writing and illustrating children's books full-time. British artist-illustrators Xavier Pick, Helen Stephens and Mark Hearld number among his ex-students. Manning's first book A Ruined House was chosen by Quentin Blake in The Laureate's Party (Red Fox) as one of his personal top 50 children's books of all time. Manning is known for his collaborations as author and co-illustrator with partner Brita Granström. Books from their young non-fiction series "Wonderwise" won the TES, Silver Smarties and English Association Awards and were also shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prizes (then called The Rhone Poulenc) on three occasions. They won The English Association award again in 2005 with Voices of the Rainforest and again in 2008 with Greek Hero. Their book Yuck! is referenced in the Mike Leigh film Happy Go Lucky. Tail End Charlie, a picture book about his father's Second World War experience as an RAF air gunner during 1944 was shortlisted for, and televised on, the Blue Peter Book Awards 2010. It was also shortlisted for the ALCS Award and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2010. Manning is a direct descendant of 18th Century Italian artist Bonifacio Musso, and Musso's London-born son Charles Muss who was himself, among many other things, a British illustrator. In 2011 Mick and Brita won a fourth English Association Award with the follow up to Tail-End Charlie; Taff in the WAAF a fascinating book about his mother's war including her experiences as a Chicksands 'Y' station listener for Bletchley Park. In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of The English Association.

Manning's other children's non fiction picture books include science titles such as: How Did I Begin? (this book looks at the amazing development of a human baby from fertilised egg to birth and was shortlisted for the Rhone Poulenc Prize in 1996) Woolly Mammoth (with the NHM, London), Dino Dinners (with the NHM, London), Nature Adventures and 'What Mr Darwin Saw, (this book about the life of Charles Darwin and his discoveries was shortlisted for the Royal Society's science book prize in 2011.)

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This baby slurps a rotten egg that is all stinky and smelly. That's not our baby's supper. Yuck!" With a funny and rhythmic text perfect for reading aloud, this fun "gross-out" information book for young children is about animal babies - a crow, lizard, osprey, toad, and owl -and the foods they like to eat - a worm tugged out of the ground, a stinky rotten egg, a spider with eight hairy legs, a whole raw fish, a crunchy beetle, and a furry rat. The authors' colorful artwork and natural
history background make this book both lively and educational.

[(NS) Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yuck is a hilarious rhyming text about the “gross” information for children to learn about animal babies. The book talks about a crow, lizard, osprey, toad, and owl and all the foods that they eat to survive. However, the description of their food, a rotten egg or spiders with hairy legs, make it engaging for young readers.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 4 and 3 year old LOVE this book. We borrowed it from the library and I read it about 10 times on that first day. My three year old basically has it memorized.

[Mrs Heet -Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand that the title of this book is Yuck, but I felt it went just a step over the line in describing the foods other baby animals eat. It seemed like this book wasn't sure exactly the age group it was aiming for.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book! Love the repetitive flow of the writing, allowing children to join in and fill in the gaps. Would be good if you were introducing adjectives or learning about food chains.

[Goshen PL Childrens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read at Storytime on December 11, 2019
Theme: X Y Z Stories

[Emilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant illustrations.

[Carlie Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Genre: informational
Appropriate Grade Range: Kindergarten
Review: I think this book was informational. It gives an idea of what different animals eat. I would not read this to a class however because it almost made it seem like it was the animals that didn’t want their own food. At the end the kid eats human food and it doesn’t say yuck. The book didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun story that shows different babies and the 'gross' foods they eat. It's very colorful and repetitive and I expect that a young child would really like it.

I picked this book up at our local library solely based on the cover, thinking that it would be a fun and gross book to read with our girls. They love learning about different animals.

They were a bit put off with how babyish it was, but their main complaint was how a frog (or was it a toad?) was depicted as a baby (while the baby form would've been a tadpole). And they also pointed out that a baby owl wouldn't be eating a whole rodent - the mom would pull apart the pieces and feed it the meat.

So, on the whole, this book fell flat for our family, but I still think it would be entertaining for a much younger child.

[Samantha Penrose · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations were cute.
I cant quite discern what age group this book is intended for. It seems to have halfway interesting information presented in a very babyish manner.

[Vandy]

leads to the question of perspective....what's yum to one may be yuck to another....
though info is good for gr 1-3, illustrations are more for preschoolers.

[Thia]

food, babies

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about animals and the different things they eat. The storytime kids loved the repeated use of the word, "Yuck."

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pre-K, print motivation, animals.