The Dinky Donkey

Starred review from November 1, 2019
Even more alliterative hanky-panky from the creators of The Wonky Donkey (2010). Operating on the principle (valid, here) that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, Smith and Cowley give their wildly popular Wonky Donkey a daughter--who, being "cute and small," was a "dinky donkey"; having "beautiful long eyelashes" she was in consequence a "blinky dinky donkey"; and so on...and on...and on until the cumulative chorus sails past silly and ludicrous to irresistibly hysterical: "She was a stinky funky plinky-plonky winky-tinky," etc. The repeating "Hee Haw!" chorus hardly suggests what any audience's escalating response will be. In the illustrations the daughter sports her parent's big, shiny eyes and winsome grin while posing in a multicolored mohawk next to a rustic boombox ("She was a punky blinky"), painting her hooves pink, crossing her rear legs to signal a need to pee ("winky-tinky inky-pinky"), demonstrating her smelliness with the help of a histrionic hummingbird, and finally cozying up to her proud, evidently single parent (there's no sign of another) for a closing cuddle. Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles. (Picture book. 4-6)

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