Review - A Hole is to Dig

A Hole is to Dig
by Ruth Krauss
illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Date: 1952
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 48
Format: e-book
Source: Open Library

What is a hole?
A hole is when you step in it
you go down

A hole is
for a mouse
to live in.

And, of course, a hole is to dig.

This is the funniest book of definitions you'll ever read!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This just doesn't work. The wording is so clumsy for a lot of these definitions, I wonder if they're taken directly from preschoolers' mouths. "Dogs are to kiss people", "a castle is to build in the sand", and "a rock is when you trip on it" don't make a ton of sense. There are some definitions that do, grammatically speaking, but that just makes the ones that don't stand out all the more.

The black-and-white illustrations are okay, but I just can't get past the clumsy writing. I wouldn't recommend this one.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 1/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 1.67 out of 5