PB 14:14 Day 9: RHYME AND WORD PLAY with "Cock-a-Doodle Dance!"

Rhyme and word play go so well together. Today, we get two Story Elements, #7 and #9. If you like to dance at all, then this book is for you!

Title: Cock-a-Doodle Dance!
Author: Christine Tricarico
Illustrator: Rich Deas
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Year: 2012
Words: 528

I know it's after noon already and I'm just getting today's post up, but I HAD to sleep in today. (I got up at 10:00.) I've been staying up until 1:00 AM all week long working feverishly to launch my website live today, in addition to hosting this cosmic blog event. I'm happy to announce that Write the Next Book Web Designs is now officially in business! Come on over (after you read today's post) and check it out.

This book features my favorite type of word play, puns and related phrases. Cleverness abounds. Here's the opening spread. (Credit for images: itunes.)



In case you can't read the "fine print," it says:

In rootin', tootin' Texas
is a gloomy, grouchy farm
where animals work overtime
and life has lost its charm.

Internal rhyme: rootin' and tootin'.
Alliteration: gloomy and grouchy.
They work so hard all the time, they never have much time to play, until...

Rooster catches a jitterbugthat shakes the barnyard beams.
He slicks his ruffled feathers back,
he shimmies, then he screams...
"Cock-a-Doodle DANCE!"

Here's a great couplet:

This jitterbug's contagious;
boogie fever's catchin' on.

And here are several awesome dance phrases throughout, with lots of alliteration:

• bovines bow
• poultries' prancin' legs
• groovin'
• pivot, pounce, and prance
• ducks are dancin'
• turkeys tango wango (love this phrase)
• chickens do the cha-cha
• dogs begin ballet
• shimmy sheep
• swing
• get down
• Rooster starts a rumba
• conga clothes
• cows start clogging
• piglets polka pies
• groggy goats can't graze
• nonstop bop
• dancin' round the clock
• ZOINKS (simply fun)
• hodgepodge heap
• doodle-dance at dusk
• When...barnyard jobs are through/the animals can belly dance/and even dipsy-doo.
• dance party
• jumpin' jitterbug
• two-step
• boogie woogie
• they really cut a rug
• stop their plows for polka
• waltz in fields of wheat

Here are all the awesome rhymes:

• farm/charm
• day/play
• beams/screams
• on/dawn
• eggs/legs
• prance/dance
• nights/heights
• ballet/light of day
• doze/clothes
• find/minds (this is the only near rhyme - there's an 's' added)
• heads/beds
• graze/days
• do/two
• cow/now
• sheep/sleep
• round the clock/laughingstock
• mess/confess
• sties/skies
• do/too
• sleep/sheep
• through/doo
• night and day/their dismay
• jitterbug/cut a rug
• incomplete/fields of wheat

Favorite line:

And turkeys tango wango,
reaching stratospheric heights.

This book includes another element of word play, which makes it a great read-aloud book. Multiple phrases of dialogue from Rooster, used as a refrain:

• "Cock-a-doodle DULL!"
• "Cock-a-doodle DANCE!"
• "Cock-a-doodle GET DOWN!"
• "Cock-a-Mooodle YEEE-HAA!"
• "Cock-a-doodle SNOOOZZE!"
• "Cock-a-doodle CLEAN UP!"
• "Cock-a-doodle DO!"
• "Gobble Gobble Gobble Gobble!" (not from Rooster)
• "Cock-a-doodle DANCE PARTY!"
• "Cock-a-doodle YAA-HOO!"

And finally, none of this would make a difference without such interesting characters creating crazy conflict for themselves and each other, which makes for a GREAT plot. And there's even a nice little takeaway theme too, aside from the topic of dance. But I can't give away everything, can I?

Have a great Saturday! See you tomorrow!