Module 9, Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty

Cover

Who pushed Humpty Dumpty, By David Levinthal  

Overview:  Who pushed Humpty Dumpty is a mystery of short snippets of events happening around private investigator Binky. Binky is a toad and is traveling around this fairytale town investigate these crimes happening to some familiar fairy tale characters. 

Levintal, D. (2012). Who pushed Humpty Dumpty. New York, NY: Random House Children's Books.

Little Library Review: Who pushed Humpty Dumpty is a funny mystery book with lots of old familiar characters that readers will recognize. The book is hilarious because it is centered around this very serious, very professional TOAD private investigator. He is bound and determine to clean up this little town of the "crimes" taking place. I would recommend that parents or teachers expose their child to fairy tales stories like The 3 bears prior to reading this mystery. It is not necessary but it will make the story that much more humorous as you read. I recommend this book for all elementary age children to enjoy. 

Other Professional Reviews: Gr 1-4 -- These open-and-shut cases of nursery-rhyme mysteries are narrated by Officer Binky, a toad with a manner reminiscent of Joe Friday's on the old Dragnet TV show, with his typical "Just the facts, Ma'am" style. In the first of five short stories, the officer gets a call from Mrs. Bear, who is upset because someone broke into the family home, ate their porridge, sat in their chairs, and slept in their beds. Based upon the evidence-a blond hair and an empty bowl, a piece of blue material caught in a chair that has seen better days, and a disheveled quilt on a bed -- Officer Binky deduces that it "could only be one dame: Goldilocks!" When questioned, she admits to being the intruder. The intrepid cop assures readers that "they'll feed her three meals a day where she's going, and she'll have plenty of time to rest." Hansel and Gretel, Humpty Dumpty, Snow White, and Jack and the Beanstalk are all similarly treated in eight pages or less with the police officer quickly solving the mysteries behind the well-known tales. Illustrations are presented in a variety of sizes and set off by frames in different colors. At the end of each segment, a red stamp reading 'CASE CLOSED' is superimposed over Nickle's richly colored acrylic artwork. The tongue-in-cheek telling of tales will tickle the fancies of children familiar with the originals. -- Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI

Owen, M. H. (2012). Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty?: And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries. School Library Journal, 58(9), 118.

Using it in the Library 📖: A fun activity to do after reading this book assuming that students are familiar to the fairy tales it to do a book hunt to connect the mystery with its original fairy tales and compare.