CM Magazine: Yuck, A Love Story.

________________ CM . . . . Volume VII Number 4 . . . . October 20, 2000

Yuck, A Love Story.

Don Gillmor. Illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay.
Toronto, ON: Stoddart Kids, 2000.
30 pp., cloth, $19.95.
ISBN 0-7737-3218-7.

Subject Headings:
Gifts-Juvenile fiction.
Moon-Juvenile fiction.

Kindergarten - grade 3 / Ages 5 - 8.

Review by Catherine Hoyt.

**.5 /4

excerpt:

"The Tyrannosaurus rex
has fifty teeth,"
Austin told her.
"It is the most feared
predator on earth."

"My name is Amy,"
Amy said.

"It mostly eats girls with freckles,"
Austin added,
and went back to his house.

This award-winning team is together again. This is story of a first crush. Austin's life is perfect until Amy moves in next door. Austin tries to get Amy's attention with some grand scale gestures. Austin decides to lasso the moon as a gift for Amy's birthday. This adventure takes Austin to twenty-two countries and ends with the pair's enjoying a piece of the moon which tastes like smelly blue cheese, Yuck! Gay's illustrations are typical of her usual work. However, although it might seem picky, Amy is described as having curly blonde hair, but, in most of the pictures, she has orange-red hair. I'm not sure that younger children would understand or find the story amusing. It might work with an older Storytime crowd, but it wouldn't be my choice for my Preschool Programs for Ages 3-5. Older independent readers may find the humour in it, especially those who enjoyed this team's other collaborations such as Christmas Orange or The Fabulous Song.

Recommended for fans of Gillmor and Gay.

Catherine Hoyt is the Curator of the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection at the University of New Brunswick.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - October 20, 2000.