Collection
Genres
Publication
Boston : Houghton Mifflin, c1972.
Description
When four million wasps fly into their village, the citizens of Itching Down devise a way of getting rid of them.
Language
Original language
English
Lexile
L
User reviews
LibraryThing member conuly
There's not much to say that hasn't been said. A zillion and a half wasps invade the town of Itching Downs (really, with a name like that, what do you expect? So it's not a waspish sort of town, the wopsies clearly think it is!), and, having apparently depleted the options of "evacuate" and "wait
They bake a HUGE loaf of bread, use up a HUGE jar of jelly, and SLAM the wasps in between two slices. No more wasps. No more problems. (Well, I guess the wasps figure there's a problem, but this isn't there book, now is it?)
Love the rhymes. Not too thrilled with the artwork, but I can overlook it.
Show More
for the first killing frost" and "use up our hoarded stores of illegal DDT" the townspeople decide to get rid of the wasps with - get this - a GIANT JAM SANDWICH. (You didn't see that one coming, did you?) Most people would have made many many regular jam sandwiches and have been done in half the time, but no, these people think big.They bake a HUGE loaf of bread, use up a HUGE jar of jelly, and SLAM the wasps in between two slices. No more wasps. No more problems. (Well, I guess the wasps figure there's a problem, but this isn't there book, now is it?)
Love the rhymes. Not too thrilled with the artwork, but I can overlook it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Paul.Bentley
A 'seventies tale of how Middle England deflected the more unpleasant aspects of an invasion of unwelcome summer visitors by baking an enormous loaf and serving it with jam. It wouldn't happen nowadays.
LibraryThing member Treeseed
This kooky story has been around for 30 years and is about a severe problem that the folks of Itching Down were having when four million wasps flew into town. It tells how the townsfolk figured out a brilliant plan to solve that problem. The rhyming text is fun to read and my kids and I had it
Show More
memorized in no time and went around the house saying it aloud and laughing our heads off. Even though we've always had a pretty big library of bedtime stories this was the hands down favorite of my four boys and one of mine as well. At first I wasn't too thrilled with the illustrations because they're really cartoonish but the zany characters, all up in arms about the winged menace are actually a perfect compliment to the fun-loving text and they have really grown on me. In this day of chemical pollutants maybe a giant jam sandwich isn't too silly of an idea anyway! Show Less
LibraryThing member crdutton
This is a great book that discusses a town that is taken over by wasps and in order to get rid of them, they build a giant jam sandwich. This story is very humourous with great illustrations that children love. The use of rhyming words in this story really helps add flare to the story.
LibraryThing member dangerlibearian
Great rhyme scheme. Wasps attack a town, the townspeople devise an interesting way to get rid of the wasps. They build a giant jam sandwich to attract the wasps, then smoosh it with the top slice of extra large bread.
LibraryThing member Fjola
I can see why this has become a classic, it's a fun, quirky story and some of the pictures are really fascinating. A book to read again and again ...
LibraryThing member benkaboo
Read this as a kid and really liked it.