Based on the well-known children’s song, funny, full-color pictures show the foods featured for each day of the week. In a thoughtful new ending to the familiar text, all the world’s children are invited on Sunday to come and eat it up.
Reviews:
“With exuberant childlike energy, Eric Carle has created an irresistible menagerie to tell the story of the long-loved children’s rhyme introducing the days of the week. Even the youngest child (ages 3-7) will delight in the rhythmic text and vibrant illustrations that make illustrated in full color by Eric Carle, Today is Monday sure to be a favorite at bedtime, storytime—anytime!”
– The Children’s Bookwatch, March 1993
“Taking his culinary cue from the well-known children’s song, Carle dishes up a smorgasbord of creatures and comestibles. Bold spreads feature larger-than-life birds and animals enthusiastically partaking of their favorite foods: a mottled snake sucks up unruly spaghetti strands, while a calico cat lays a protective paw on Thursday’s roast beef. Though the cumulative rhyme is little more than a grocery list, Carle injects energy and movement with his signature rainbow-like collages. Exotic hues—a turquoise elephant, an emerald fish, a parrot of Technicolor plumage—glow with vitality as if illuminating the animal’s inner core. Yet despite their radiance these are down-to-earth animals imbued with the loving clumsiness of a child’s artwork. The final spread shows children—also of various skin colors—wolfing down the various foods at a sumptuous banquet, as the featured animals look on from paintings on the wall. The song’s music and lyrics bring this feast to a satisfying close. Ages 3-7.”
– Publishers Weekly, January 25, 1993
“Carle’s illustrations for this catchy, lighthearted cumulative song (“…today is Tuesday, Tuesday spaghetti, Monday string beans, All you hungry children Come and eat it up”) originally appeared in 1977 as a frieze; they are even more welcome in this attractive book showing a porcupine eating string beans, an elephant slopping up Wednesday’s “ZOOOOP,” a cat snitching Thursday’s roast beef, and so on. Rendered in Carle’s trademark luminescent tissue-paper collage, the glowing animals are handsomely set off by the expansive white ground. A concluding scene with seven children sharing a meal makes a satisfying finale. Music included, but the song isn’t sourced. (3-8)”
– Kirkus, January 1, 1993
