Wash, Scrub, Brush: A Book About Keeping Clean

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A multi-award winning series of non-fiction picture books Two excellent topics which link into the curriculum for maths, science, technology and history Includes helpful notes on making the best use of the books.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

PreS-K-The authors skillfully cover basic grooming and hygiene within a story framework. When several children receive party invitations, readers follow them as they get ready for the event, beginning with a nail cleaning and finishing up with a hair wash (and in one case, a mother removing lice). The youngsters arrive at the party spruced up but by the end of it they all look like they will need another round of "wash, scrub, brush." While explaining how children get clean, the author also describes in asides how animals groom themselves, sometimes with the assistance of other creatures. The book concludes with a head-to-toe review of keeping clean and a glossary of key terms with page references. The informative, colorful full-page and spot-art pencil-and-watercolor illustrations convey the light tone of the text and show both fathers and mothers tidying up their children.-Marilyn Ackerman, Brooklyn Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Ages 5^-8. If the scare tactics here don't get kids to clean up, nothing will. Using an invitation to a party as a spur, the book outlines personal hygiene, including cleaning fingernails (kids are told nails harbor more harmful germs and bacteria than a toilet seat), brushing teeth ("smell that doggy breath!"), and washing and brushing hair (dandruff and lice are unflinchingly discussed). How animals clean themselves (children will learn that only sloths need to be dirty) makes an amusing counterpoint throughout. Kids find out that African oxpeckers eat the earwax of zebras, and a Komodo dragon's nails are so filthy that a single scratch from them is deadly. The illustrations, crowded with happy kids sprucing up, are bright and lively, keeping the book from becoming too didactic. A glossary of useful words is appended. --Connie Fletcher

Horn Book Review

These charmingly illustrated books compare human maternal behavior and basic hygiene with that of animals, using both similarities and differences to elucidate the concepts. Each double-page spread juxtaposes scenes of humans with captioned spot illustrations of their animal parallels, an approach that works well in [cf2]Supermom,[cf1] but that in [cf2]Wash[cf1] muddles an unnecessary story line of preparing to go to a party. Glos., ind. From HORN BOOK Fall 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

There’s going to be a party in this hygiene-centric picture book that teaches little ones how to keep clean. There is not a part of the body that is spared as Manning and Granström (Supermom, p. 262, etc.) take readers down the path to clean-dom. They start by informing them that there are more harmful germs underneath fingernails than on a toilet seat! A Komodo dragon pictured on the same page has claws, they learn, that are so dirty that just one scratch can cause an infection. People brush their teeth to keep down odors from plaque and decay, while small fish get a meal while cleaning the teeth of the larger grouper fish. Free of wordiness and pedantry this has a good dose of gross-out factor and fascinatingly relevant animal facts. Everyone arrives at the party well-scrubbed and proceeds to have loads of fun getting dirty again while eating, playing, and face-painting. The glossary of useful words adds still more information to this already packed and lively lesson. The drawings of an ethnically diverse cast of characters are pudgy and cute, while the animals are realistic with bright watercolors adding splashes of light. This takes all the drudgery out of coming clean! (Picture book. 3-7)