HUCK RUNS AMUCK! (Picture Book)

by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

Dial-Penguin, 2011

A Book Review by

Violet the Telekinetic Puppy

I’m Violet and I’m going to tell you about a funny picture book called HUCK RUNS AMUCK. HUCK RUNS AMUCK is about a goat named Huck who runs amuck. Amuck is a funny word and Huck is a funny goat and funny things happen when Huck runs amuck and that’s why HUCK RUNS AMUCK is a funny picture book.

Huck is a special type of goat and that type of goat is a mountain goat. That means Huck is good at climbing. It’s good that Huck is good at climbing because the other thing about Huck is that his favorite food is flowers and the flowers Huck wants to eat are all in high-up places. Huck is a good climber but when he sees flowers he gets excited and he goes amuck and then he isn’t a careful climber.

Huck does a lot of climbing in this book but he doesn’t do a lot of eating because every time he gets close to flowers something happens to keep him from eating the flowers. One time he gets close enough to eat some flowers when he climbs way up a tall cliff that has flowers on top of it. But Huck doesn’t get to eat those flowers because he falls off the tall cliff and that might sound sad but it is really funny because the picture of him falling off the tall cliff is so funny that you won’t be sad. And Huck doesn’t get sad either because right away he sees some more flowers to try to eat and that is another funny part because the flowers he sees aren’t the kind of flowers that grow in the ground they are the kind that are just pictures on underwear. Huck climbs a clothesline to get to the flowers that are really just pictures on underwear but a funny thing happens to keep him from eating the underwear flowers. I won’t tell you what the funny thing is because you will want to find out for yourself.

There are other funny parts where Huck gets close to flowers but doesn’t get to eat them. But there is one time he does get close to flowers and he could eat them if he wants and those are the flowers on a lady’s hat and the hat is on top of a church tower and Huck climbs the tower to get to the hat. But do you know what? Huck doesn’t eat the hat flowers because everybody in town thinks Huck is being a nice mountain goat and that he is climbing the church tower to get the lady’s hat for her. Even though he really wants to eat the hat flowers he doesn’t because he doesn’t want everybody to be mad at him and also because even though he is a hungry mountain goat he is also a nice mountain goat and so he doesn’t eat the hat flowers. The lady is happy and wants to give Huck a reward and you probably think you know what his reward is but if your guess is flowers you are only sort of right. If you think I’m going to tell you if Huck gets to eat flowers at the end of this book you are not even a little bit right.

The pictures in this book are fun to look at and I like the colors and I like the funny way Huck’s eyes look hungry and googly when he sees flowers. I also like the little bird that follows Huck around and I didn’t notice the little bird the first time I read the book but I liked this book so much that I read it a second time and that’s when I noticed the little bird. I don’t know why the little bird follows Huck around but I think maybe Huck ate his nest. That might sound strange but at the beginning of the book it says that goats can eat birds’ nests so maybe Huck ate the little bird’s nest. Except maybe Huck didn’t eat the little bird’s nest because the little bird doesn’t look mad. Probably the little bird is following Huck around because it is fun to watch Huck run amuck.

Here is a list of who will like this book:

Flowertarians.

Little birds.

Readers named Billy.