The Wonky Donkey

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So he could've only had one eye; there's no reason we had to see the bird carrying the eyeball away!

The little bird that is following him takes up the story and at each turn adds one of the phrases to his description, for example one morning he gets up and does not have his coffee so 'cranky' is added to the descriptive list. In this very funny, cumulative song, each page tells us something new about the donkey until we end up with a spunky, hanky-panky cranky stinky dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey, which will have children in fits of laughter! The bird plucking the donkey's eye out was weird and a little bit disturbing considering this is supposed to be a children's book. In trying to be funny, the illustrator may have inadvertently caused a whole bunch of children to need therapy. When writing songs for the adult arena, Craig couldn't escape his childish side and was soon writing songs for non-grown-ups.Perhaps read out loud to the children it might have some appeal and I imagine they might laugh at the descriptions, too. The first track from this album, 'Wonky Donkey', won the APRA New Zealand Children’s Song of the Year 2008. Nevertheless, the goofy stretched-out descriptive list ("he was a cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey") will get giggles. I mean, I read the rest of the book, but I was distracted, thinking about how little kids could potentially develop a debilitating fear about birds swooping down and plucking out their eyes. This is intended to be read aloud to a very small child, who I'm sure will laugh and snort every time "Hee haw!

Smith and his publisher responded by stating that the song predated the specific versions that the educator had seen on the internet and that it was possible that these versions had emerged because of his success with the song and resulting book. I didn't end up reading this to my daughters because the donkey illustrations were creepy and a little crude. Shortly after, the family moved to Queenstown where he, his mother and five brothers and sisters grew up. In 2010 a schoolteacher alleged that Smith had heavily based the book on several internet jokes and had not referenced this in his work. I didn't find it cute and, in fact, found the increasingly long description of the donkey to be cumbersome.The lack of commas makes me a little nutso, but I could see using this as a springboard for a silly phonics lesson.

I must confess I am at a loss to understand how 'The Wonky Donkey' became 'The laugh-out-loud, bestselling book that's a viral internet sensation!So I jumped on the bandwagon and got this for my boys after seeing the video of the hilarious Scottish granny reading it to her grandson: https://www. I endeavor to always read this in a Scottish accent - which makes most things better, if you ask me - and so far it seems to be working. Theres a certain re-readability with this one which adds to the appeal, reckon this will be read numerous times over the coming months. I thought this would be one of those tongue twister stories to get kids laughing, but I definitely won't be reading it to my class. It has unusual illustrations and the story is simple, using snappy rhyming words to describe the donkey's many defects, beginning with the fact that he has three legs and is thus a 'wonky donkey'.

The book is written a bit like "The 12 Days of Christmas" where everything that goes before is repeated on each subsequent page with one phrase added. He is working on turning more of his kid’s songs into books with a CD of the songs included in the future.

It is illustrated by British-born Katz Cowley, who has a degree in Illustration from the University of Northumbria.