Rachel Anne Mencke

One Little Spoonful by Aliki (babies/toddlers)

A cheery and patient mother feeds her baby: “One little spoonful for your toes/One little spoonful for your nose” etc.: one little spoonful for each of baby’s part.  There is, of course, the inevitable tantrum and mess: “Oh, what a show! /Wipe it all up, and there’s one more to go.” Then, mom and tot go off to play.

Baby Business by Mittie Cuetara (Baby+ one at a time.)

24 4-line poems chronicle various daily baby and toddler “business.”  Breakfast, Bathtime, Bedtime, are particularly well suited to a Messy theme. 

What Bounces? by Kate Duke  (Baby-Toddler)

A baby guinea pig is delighted to find that balls bounce.  “What else bounces?”  With the methodology of a scientist, the baby guinea pig stands on a stool before the open refrigerator, testing its contents.  “Do eggs bounce?...Does milk bounce?...Does cake bounce?”  Short and action packed enough for infants, and humorous enough for their caretakers (and toddlers) to enjoy, too.

Mucky Duck by Sally Grindley Illustrated by Neal Layton (Baby-Toddler)

“Mucky Duck was supposed to be white, and sometimes she was, but mostly she wasn’t.  And this is why…”  A list of Mucky Duck’s messy hobbies follow, with the chorus “Oh you Mucky Duck!”  Once a week, Mucky Duck gets a bath, but he doesn’t stay clean long…

How To Clean Your Room In 10 Easy Steps by Jennifer LaRue Huget Illustrated by Edward Koren  (ages 4-9)

A cheeky kids’-eye view of how to clean a room, from waiting for Mom to holler twice, using all three of your names, to pulling out everything you own and playing with it until Mom starts yelling again, to piling broken and outgrown toys in a “gift-wrapped” box for little sister.  Don’t be scared away by the text-heavy pages.  This is too funny to resist.

Uh-Oh! by Rachel Isadora  (Baby-Toddler)

A cheerfully irrepressible toddler  makes lots of messes!  Each recto page presents an item, character or event in the baby’s world  (e.g., Diaper).  The verso shows the “Uh-oh!” (the naked toddler grinning impishly on the floor amid a mess of diapers, baby wipes and baby powder).  Delightful!

I Stink! By Kate & Jim McMullan (Ages 2-7)

“…Know what I do at night while you’re asleep? / Eat your TRASH, that’s what.”  An anthropomorphic garbage truck goes through his daily routine, glorying in the smelly griminess of his job.

I’m Dirty!  by Kate & Jim McMullan (Ages 2-4)

“Who’s got a BOOM, a dipper stick, and a BUCKET with a row of chompers?  ME! And that’s just my REAR end.”  An anthropomorphic backhoe loader goes through his daily routine, relishing the muddy dirtiness of his job.  He counts down the junk he cleans up with lots of noise.  “Cleaning up this mess?  Easy as pie.  Make that a MUD pie.”  At the end, “this lot’s cleaned up.  And me?  I’m DIRTY.”

Mud by Mary Lyn Ray, Illustrated by Lauren Stringer  (Ages 4-9)

“One night it happens. / Maybe it begins in the warm of the day, and night only releases the scent. / But it’s always at night that it happens. . Someone opening a door will notice: earth comes unfrozen...”  A beautifully evocative poem, accompanied by painted illustrations that blend abstract and realistic images of the spring thaw.  Glorious.

Time To Get Dressed!  by Elivia Savadier (Babies-Age 3)

“Solomon likes to dress himself.”  Every time Solomon’s very patient daddy gets out an item of clothing, Solomon grabs it and says “Me!”  His pants on his head, one arm in the sleeve of a shirt, one hand in a sock and a shoe dangling from his ankle by the laces, Solomon looks delighted, Daddy less so.  “Now it’s getting late, so when the big hand is on the six and the little hand is on the seven, Daddy says “ME!” and helps his son dress.  Of course, when they get to the table, Solomon wants to feed himself…

This is the House That Was Tidy and Neat Up by Teri Sloat, illustrated by R.W. Alley (Baby-Age 5)

“This is the nanny who dropped off to sleep and was snoring away... /forgetting to keep an eye on the girl who spilled all the milk and blamed the boy who opened the door and let in the dog who barked at the cat who chased the mouse who nibbles on crumbsthat fell in the house at the end of the street... / that was tidy and neat when Mom left.”  A cumulative tale of catastrophes set in an Edwardian home.  Will they be able to clean up before mom gets home?

Super-Completely And Totally the Messiest  by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (Ages 5+)

“My room is very neat—like me, Olivia. / Jake, my big brother, is sort of, but not a HUGE slob.  And then there’s my little sister, whose room is seriously—I mean seriously—REVOLTING.”   Primary grade-schooler Sophie exuberantly leaves a trail of chaos, much to her older sister’s dismay.  “I mean, Sophie isn’t just messy.  She is THE MESSIEST.”  Pen sketches, reminiscent of the busy scenes Hilary Knight used in the Eloise books, accompany the text, with primary characters and selected objects in Sophie’s wake colored in with bright watercolors.

Overboard!  by Sarah Weeks, Illustrated by Sam Williams (Baby-Age 5)

What could be more fun than tossing things to watch them go splat?  In this baby bunny’s opinion: NOTHING!  “Drippy, slippy-slidey peaches.   Pechy peaches, nice and fat.  Peaches going… / overboard!  Peaches, peaches, Splat! Splat!  Splat! / Squeaky, leaky rubber ducky.  Lucky ducky time to fly.  Rubber ducky… /  overboard!   Rubber ducky, bye, bye, bye!  Favorite jammies…/ overboard!  / Little lambies… /  overboard! “

Max Cleans Up by Rosemary Wells (Baby-Age 5)

“Max put his popsicle where no one would find it”—i.e., in his shoe.  His bossy sister, Ruby, is appalled by how messy Max’s room is and insists that they clean up.  Max is determined to rescue his treasures from Ruby’s cleaning mission, though, and hides the best of them in his overalls: his favorite piece of chewing gum on a string, the contents of a tube of bubbles, the escaped residents of his ant farm, and, of course, the (now melted) popsicle.  A triumphant Ruby announces that now “there’s a place for everything, and everything’s in its place!” before suspiciously asking “What’s in your overalls?”  “Everything.”  For antsier toddler groups, some pages can be skipped.

Max’s Bath by Rosemary Wells (Baby-Toddler)

Max is still hungry, perhaps because, as Ruby points out, his lunch ended up all over his outside instead of in his tummy.  Ruby draws Max a bath, and he promptly sinks his orange sherbet in the water, turning it and himself orange.  The same thing happens with the next bath and a glass of grape juice.  Each time, Max exclaims excitedly “Boat!”  An exasperated Ruby puts Max in the shower.  Now Max is clean, but Ruby is filthy.

Here’s A Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry  collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters  (Babies +)

 p. 76 “Mud” by Flanders and Swann

Messy Rhymes

Breakfast

(p.7 in Baby Business by Mittie Cuetara)

Marcus drops and spills and throws,

Covers everybody’s clothes.

Time for clean-up—get the hose!

Messy little baby.

Bathtime

(p.27 in Baby Business by Mittie Cuetara)

Alexander loves a scrub,

Then a fuzzy-towel rub.

Tiny ring around the tub.

Yummy little baby.

Baby’s Bath

As movement rhyme or with flannel board

Baby’s ready for his bath.

Here’s the baby’s tub.

Here’s the baby’s washcloth.

See how he can rub.

Here’s the baby’s cake of soap,

And here’s the towel dry,

And here’s the baby’s cradle,

Rock-a-baby-bye.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Rub-a-dub-dub

Three Men in a tub,

And how do you think they got there?

The butcher, the baker,

The candlestick maker,

The all jumped out of a rotten potato,

‘Twas enough to make a man stare!

Messy Songs

“I Feel Crazy So I Jump In My Soup”  Track 17 on

Berkner, Laurie.  Victor Vito.  CD.  Two Tomatoes Records, 1999.

“I’m A Mess” Track 12 on

Berkner, Laurie.  Buzz Buzz.  CD.  Two Tomatoes Records.  1998.

This one isn’t sung but chanted rhythmically.

“Stick to the Glue” Track 3 on

Gill, Jim.  Jim Gill Makes it Noisy in Boise.  BMI.  1995.

This Is the Way We Wash Our Hands

(Action Rhyme)

This is the way we wash our hands,

Wash our hands, wash our hands.

This is the way we wash our hands,

So early in the morning.

This is the way we wash our feet,

Wash our feet, wash our feet,

This is the way we wash our feet,

So early in the morning.

This is the way we wash our tummy,

Wash our tummy, wash our tummy,

This is the way we wash our tummy,

So early in the morning.

(Repeat with feet and tummy. If they seem really into it, I’ll do hands again one last time.)

A Very Messy Bibliography

Aliki.  One Little Spoonful.  HaperFestival-HarperCollinsPublishers, 2001.

Cuetara, Mittie.  Baby Business.  New York: Dutton Children’s Books.  2003.

Duke, Kate.  What Bounces?  New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 1986  (reissued 1999.)

Grindley, Sally.  Mucky Duck.  Illustrated by Neal Layton.  New York: Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2003.

McMullan, Kate and McMullan, Jim.  I Stink!  New York: Joanna Cotler Books-HarperCollinsPublishers, 2002.

McMullan, Kate and McMullan, Jim.  I’m Dirty!  Joanna Cotler Books-HarperCollinsPublishers, 2006.

Huget, Jennifer LaRue.  How to Clean Your Room in 10 Easy Steps.  Illustrated by Edward Koren.  New York : Schwartz & Wade Books, 2010.

Isadora, Rachel.  Uh-Oh!  Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., 2008.

Ray, Mary Lyn.  Mud.  Illustrated by Lauren Stringer.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996.

Savadier, Elivia.  Time To Get Dressed!  New Milford, Conn.: A Neal Porter Book-Roaring Brook Press, 2006.

Sloat, Teri.  This is the House That Was Tidy and Neat.  Illustrated by R.W. Alley.  New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2005.

Viorst, Judith.  Super-Completely and Totally the Messiest.  Illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser.  New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001.

Weeks, Sarah.  Overboard!  Illustrated by Sam Williams.  Orlando : Harcourt, Inc., 2006.

Wells, Rosemary.  Max Cleans Up.  New York: Viking-Penguin Group, 2000.

Wells, Rosemary.  Max’s Bath.  New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1985.

Yolen, Jane and Andrew Fusek-Peters, eds.  Here’s A Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry.  Illustrated by Polly Dunbar.  Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2007.