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Review by Alice Cary
Sandra Boynton's lovable characters don't have names, but almost everyone knows them. Her pigs, cats, dogs, and menagerie of furry creatures grace over 8,000 different greeting cards that sell a total of more than 20 million copies each year. Her crew is also featured on mugs, T-shirts, calendars, stuffed animals, even wallpaper. They are the heroes of more than 20 books for children and adults, including the best-selling Chocolate: The Consuming Passion.
Boynton has made her latest artistic leap with dancing shoes in mind -- Rhinoceros Tap and 14 Other Seriously Silly Songs is a book and tape package featuring her songs as well as accompanying illustrations. She teamed up with pianist Mike Ford to write the songs; they chose singer and actor Adam Bryant to perform on the tape.
Lest Boynton fans wonder about the wisdom of this venture, the artist is no stranger to music. She sang in the Yale Glee Club and dreamed of becoming a theater director while a student in the esteemed Yale Drama School. She started designing greeting cards to earn money for grad school, but her runaway success led her from the stage into an art studio. (Boynton works in a converted barn in Connecticut, where she lives with her husband and their four children.)
Just one look at the new book's cover, which features a prancing rhino with a cane and top hat, is proof positive that Boynton's a natural when it comes to music. Here are 14 tunes guaranteed to keep both kids and parents stomping, clapping, singing, and grinning.
"Kids deserve real music with variety and unpredictable lyrics," Boynton says. "I've always enjoyed the rhythm of writing, so creating kids' music seemed like a logical next step."
She pulls off the feat deftly, creating a tape that's a veritable showcase of wit and whimsy. The music is the centerpiece of this package, and variety is the key word, with music styles that include reggae, jazz, blues, pop, funk, a square dance, even a lullaby. Think Manhattan Transfer meets a chorus line of lovable creatures possessing Fred-Astaire-and-Ginger-Rogers-like talent.
The song titles alone are enough to make listeners smile, such as: "The Crabby Song," "Bad Babies," "O, Lonely Peas," "I Love You More Than Cheese" (an ode from one mouse to another), "The Shortest Song in the Universe."
For years Boynton has made her pictures sing, using simple sketches to express every emotion from utter glee to glumness. She now shows that she can make lyrics practically jump off the page. Take, for instance, the refrain from the title song, "The Rhinoceros Tap": "Skittery Cat, Skittery Cat, Stomp Stomp!/Rabbity Rabbity Rabbity Rabbity, Skittery Cat, Stomp!"
If you're not dancing along to the tape, open the book and check out the illustrations, where chorus lines of cats, rabbits, rhinos, and cows look like they're ready for Broadway. Although a book of lyrics may not sound interesting, Boynton makes it come alive with illustrations and clever variations in type styles, size and color. Music is also included for anyone who wants to play along.
Much of the humor is straightforward enough to make preschoolers giggle. ("Dinner is over./I like what I ate./Except for the peas,/Which are still on my plate.") There are also jokes that appeal to more sophisticated palates. ("I'd give up Provolone/If you would have it so./If you'd give me a/Kiss, please, then/Swiss cheese/I'd forego.")
Boynton says she prefers writing to drawing. Indeed, this is one pun-ny woman. Her birthday card "Hippo Birdie Two Ewes" has been a bestseller for years. So it's no great surprise that her lyrics are so singable, with lines like "piggy doo wah" and the high-stepping square dance commands of "Barnyard Dance":
Bounce with the bunny.Both the book and the songs feature puns galore, such as the square dance caller's comment: "Now that's what I call Agri-Culture."
Strut with the duck.
Spin with the chickens now --
CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!
Few artists are as versatile and talented as Sandra Boynton. I buy her cards. Years ago I gobbled up her chocolate book; lately I've been reading her books to my son. Now the two of us will be dancing and singing our hearts out to Rhinoceros Tap.
A message for Ms. Boynton: Thanks for the tape. Now we're ready for the musical!
Alice Cary is a dancing book reviewer in Groton, Massachusetts.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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