Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Kelly L. Green is co-author of The Ethical Shopper’s Guide to Canadian
Supermarket Products and associate editor of the Canadian Book Review
Annual.

The best word I can think of to describe this book is hysterical,
because that is what reading it makes you. Like all consummate
comedians, Muller starts slowly, gradually drawing the reader into his
nonsensical rhyme about a nattily dressed badger out boating. Badger
loads up his rowboat with everyone from a hippo in polka dots to an
ostrich complete with plumed hat, all the while singing—you guessed
it.

Muller is a masterful illustrator, who pays special attention to the
animals’ costumes and facial expressions. His ostrich simultaneously
resembles a real ostrich and a prissy old lady trying to maintain her
dignity in an awkward situation.

By the end of the book, both the rhyme and the illustrations are so
frenzied we wonder if relief will ever come! But I don’t want to give
away an excellent punch line. Suffice to say, one can’t read this
book; it must be sung. A perfect choice for babies up to early readers.
Highly recommended.