Mud Puddle. Rev.ed.

Ted McGee is an associate professor of English at St. Jerome’s
College, University of Waterloo.

This new edition of Mud Puddle represents a major revision by Robert
Munsch and Sami Suomalainen. While the plot remains the same (after a
series of joyous encounters with a clever mud puddle, Jule Ann triumphs
using her wits and a couple of bars of soap), many specifics have been
altered or elaborated, a result of Munsch’s having performed the story
over the years. His voice is certainly stronger in this version:
syntactical revisions increase suspense; pronouns quicken pace;
repetition (a Munsch trademark) proliferates; and accumulatio adds comic
effects, as in the climactic bath scene: “She washed out her ears. She
washed out her eyes. She washed out her mouth. She washed out her nose.
She even washed out her belly button.”

This edition features entirely new illustrations, all in color, bright
in tone, and rambunctious in content. The result is a livelier
celebration not only of Jule Ann’s triumph over Mud Puddle, but also
of the fun to be had in the mud or in the bath. Highly recommended.