Bone Rattling, Teeth Chattering, Belly Laughing - Skeleton Hiccups
Written: Jan 11 '06
Product Rating:
Pros: Very cute story, awesome illustrations, hard cover.
Cons: Some things in the drawings may scare younger kids.
The Bottom Line: Join in all the silly fun with this adorable book about a skeleton that shakes, rattles and almost rolls from one incredible case of hiccups!
Freak369's Full Review: Margery Cuyler - Skeleton Hiccups
Every once in a while you come across a book that you can’t help but laugh at when you see it. That is exactly what happened when I saw Skeleton Hiccups at the book store. It isn’t exactly what I would call a Halloween book but it is something that really caught my eye. How many times do you ever come across a skeleton that has an almost incurable case of hiccups? What really makes this book ‘pop’ is that it has incredible illustrations, in fact, they don’t really look like illustrations at some points - they look like images that were placed over other drawings to give it depth. This is the kind of book that you can read over and over again because there are always new things to find. A cute example of this is the tiny little mouse peeking out of the hole on the first page, I read through this book at lest ten times and never saw it until Annabelle pointed it out to me. It’s not all that wordy or dragged down with big words; kids will be able to make their way through it in a few minutes but it will be something that they’ll mimic all day long so be prepared for tons of fake hiccups!
Skeleton Hiccups
One thing you have to know up front about this book is that the skeleton doesn’t have a name, he’s just called Skeleton. He has a common problem that plagues almost everyone at one point or another, he has hiccups and he can’t seem to get rid of them. He woke up with them and had to deal with them through the day. He was hiccuping so bad that when he went to take a shower, the soap popped right over the curtain. Brushing his teeth and polishing his bones were equally disastrous events; he still had the hiccups. One of the worst things was when he went to try and carve a pumpkin; the poor thing looked like it was hacked up instead of having eyes, a nose and mouth. Now, when he tried to rake leaves, he hiccuped and when he played with his friend Ghost, he wasn’t able to catch the ball that was being thrown at him. How silly is that, a ghost playing baseball and a skeleton trying to catch?
Ghost tried to be a great friend and offer up some advice; hold your breath, eat some sugar, press your fingers over your eyeballs [skeletons don’t have eyeballs do they?], drink some water upside down. Ghost was almost out of things to try, even scaring him with a big boo didn’t help. Did you ever hear the saying that the solution is right under your nose? Well, in this case, it was more of right in front of your face! Ghost pulled a mirror out of the trunk and put it in front of Skeleton. When he saw his reflection he screamed and poof, the hiccups were gone. The funny part is that they weren’t just gone, they were so scared of seeing Skeleton in the mirror that they ran away! You get to see the ‘hic, hic, hic’ words jumping away from Ghost and Skeleton too, that might seem silly to adults but it’s something smaller kids connect with. They always ask “where did it go?”, this is an easy out if they ask where hiccups went.
The Take
This is a very simple and easy book to read with younger kids. Sure things like ghosts, skeletons, bats and bones might seem like bizarre topics to have in a book about hiccups but there is a lot of hidden humor in it - like pressing your fingers into your eyes or a skeleton taking a shower. It has a silly slant to it so it is something that kids are going to have a blast reading and it may just inspire them to start reading about how hiccups happen, how you can try to get rid of them and what happens when you can’t get rid of them. The book has a suggested retail price of $14.99 but I picked up a copy for less than half of that. It had a little shelf wear to it but what’s a book without a little wear and tear?
The Bottom Line
This is classified as a picture book but it’s so much more than that. If you have a small child that gets hiccups often and you can’t seem to find anything to help assure them that there’s nothing wrong with them, this might be worth looking into getting. Skeleton isn’t scary looking and Ghost is very rotund, both of them are silly characters that are trying to cope with a somewhat serious situation. I’d recommend this for young readers, probably between the ages of three and five but use your own judgment. You could toss this in as a Halloween book if you like, it’s certainly got enough seasonal appeal to it. To check out more titles from the publisher, visit their website at www.simonsayskids.com.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.