A Crazy Day at the Critter Café

by Lee White (Illustrator), Barbara Odanaka

Swish, zoom, swish. Clickety-clack! When a bus full of critters breaks down, a sleepy roadside café suddenly wakes up! Raccoons, elephants, zebras, and rams are only a few of the many animals demanding grub, and it is all that a cook and a waiter can do to keep up. But when Skateboard Cow swerves her way through the crowd, more than a few feathers are guaranteed to be ruffled! Rhythmic text and energetic illustrations combine for a romp of pure fun and entertainment.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Humor, Food, Poetry, Storytime

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 2009

About the author

Lee White is a writer, illustrator, and educator with 25+ years of experience. He has illustrated more than 20 children’s books and novels with major trade publishers like Penguin Random House and Candlewick. Working primarily in watercolor, digital, and mixed media, his work combines strong design with a focus on storytelling and visual clarity. His commercial clients include Disney, Apple, National Geographic, United Airlines, and Verizon.

Lee taught full-time for over a decade at the Art Institute of Portland, where he developed and led the concept design curriculum, focusing on visual storytelling, character design, and worldbuilding. He is a co-founder of the School of Visual Storytelling (SVS), an online art education platform where he teaches courses and workshops to a global community of thousands of illustrators. His teaching emphasizes a process-driven approach, that helps students build strong foundational illustration and design skills, and translate their ideas into clear, engaging images. He co-hosts the illustration podcast 3 Point Perspective, which has released over 300 episodes and reached more than 2 million downloads worldwide.

He is a frequent speaker and workshop instructor at regional Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators events and industry workshops, and has also presented at the national SCBWI winter conference.

Lee’s personal paintings are exhibited and sold in galleries and art fairs, and are collected internationally. He holds a degree with honors from ArtCenter College of Design, and has his MFA in Illustration from the University of Hartford.

Reviews

[Nancy Kotkin]

A cute rhyming story about a frenetic, demanding busload of animals who stop at the sleepy Critter Cafe for something to eat. The story's twist ending doesn't resolve the main conflict. But kids will probably be entertained by the food fight. Pleasing illustrations with lots of activity.

[Mary Ledom]

I really enjoyed this book and would strongly suggest it to other teachers. Throughout the entire book I was smiling and looking forward to the next page. I loved the illustrations that were on each page because they filled the entire page with brightness and happiness. All the animals were happy throughout the book, which I think, would make the children laugh and smile. The animals are acting like people and I think children get a great kick out of stories like that.
This would be a great book for students to learn about different animals and noises that they make. The placement of words is what draws my eyes in to read more and it most definitely will draw the children in. This is a great read aloud book that the teacher can come into character and have a blast. I hope to read this in an environment where this can form into more of an activity than just reading. The book comes alive through excitement and will make the children want to turn the page with no questions asked.

[Jessica Davis]

The book "A Crazy Day at the Critter Cafe" by Barbara Odanaka is a children's picture book. Age group 4-8.

The book is about when a bus full of animals come through the café door demanding food because their bus broke down. The animals were playing instruments, squawking, yelling and demanding service. The poor waiter was going crazy trying to keep up with everything and everyone. It was a disaster. I rated this book 5 stars because the illustrations, color, wording emphasis' were amazing. I think the children would love this book. This book absolutely is for young readers even children to young to read. They would enjoy their parents reading it to them. I could use this book at reading time or any down time to read to my students. I'm sure they would love it!

[Jayna]

Ages 2 and up

After their bus breaks down, a group of animals invade the critter cafe. They are noisy, picky and keep sending their food back. After a while the waiter and chef are tired of the animals. Then the cow comes skating in and knocks down the waiter. The waiter declares that all of the animals pay up and leave, which they do. After they have left the waiter notices a lump on the floor that also moos. The cow decides that since he has missed the bus he is going to stay at the cafe and be the new chef.

This was a fun book that also rhymed. Books that rhyme are great for children because it helps to teach them the smaller parts of the words.

[Heidi-Marie]

This will be a great book for an older group storytime if I can just get the rhyming, voices, and inflections right. I'd have some time to practice before the summer. The pictures are highly entertaining (even if there were a couple of spots I wasn't exactly sure what was trying to be shown). I think I could even entertain the preschoolers with this one, but there are some larger words that they may not be familiar with. (Hey! I had to look one of them up myself!)

[Alana]

A great book! A whole bunch of super picky animals barge into the cafe after their bus breaks down demanding food. The waiter and cook end up getting totally fed up with them all and kicking them out. I can see the link between this book and serving a whole table full of little kids a snack. An experience that can leave you pulling your hair out - anyone who is around kids would know!

[Katie Morris]

This cute rhyming story tells the fictional story of a unsuccessful/slow day at a cafe. The story quickly picks up when five raccoons stop in and other zoo animals join in too. This fun story will definitely give students a good laugh from a skateboarding cow to a waiting sneezing out buttered peas, and I would use this in my classroom for simply reading enjoyment.

[Pamela Howard]

I absolutely loved reading this book. I can see myself reading this book to my student as a read aloud. It can also teach students a little bit about rhyming, and can be very entertaining when read with different voices. It can be a mini lessons used for building community to show how to work with different personalities that may be annoying at times.

[Molly]

Just plain fun! While reading, you can talk about being a picky eater, ask your child to identify a vast array of animals (pangolin, anyone?) and think about good manners. Plus, there's a skateboarding cow and a waiter sneezes peas- kids will love it!

[Bates Library]

We are reading this in Kindergarten for April is National Poetry month (and playing with magnetic poetry). The author is a skateboarder in real life and both books I've read by her have had skaters in them.

[Mary]

A funny story to introduce manners and being patient. It is also a good book for parents to read to their children about the proper way to eat sit in a restaurant. Teachers could use this story to talk about how we have to wait our turn and the consequences of being impatient and greedy.

[Melissa]

I thought this was cute and clever...filled with noises to make and fun rhyming language and lots of animals. I also thought my preschoolers would love it, but it fell flat. I'll probably try it again and see if it was just that group. Maybe it would work a little better for K or 1st grades?

[Debbie Tanner]

This funny little book is about a day at the cafe when a bus full of animals comes in. The animals are not particularly mannerly or kind. They are picky and kind of annoying and very funny! There are a ton of animal noises (hence the onomatopoeia) and a lot of mess and a very funny ending!

[Cassie]

Ages 4-8. A cute rhyming story that is fun and action packed and helps build vocabulary and phonological awareness. Because of its length it might not hold the attention of toddlers, but preschools are sure to love the humor and story.

[Rhaynes5]

A Crazy Day at The Critter Cafe is cute, clever, and fun! This book in the classroom will be tons of fun! The book is filled with different crazy noises to make. I believe the children will enjoy the books humor while also learning rhyming skills.

[Katie]

Very fun! Great rhyme, phonological awareness, print awareness. Good for a schoolage class. Ends with a cute twist that I hadn't seen coming.

[Marina]

Super cute illustrations and I love books that rhyme--so easy to get in the flow and just run right through it. A very cute premise.

[Jami]

A simple rhyming story about animals converging on the Critter Cafe and the hilarity that ensues. The little ones enjoyed supplying the last word of every rhyme.

[Amy]

Simple little story. Has some fun word choice and might be a good way to show active verbs and sound devices.

[Monique Mcdonald]

Funny book, its a reading for pleasure. This book is also a rhyming book, so it can be used for that too.

[Audrey P]

A fun, rhyming book with great pictures. Kids like that the typeface varies in size and orientation on the page.

(I liked that, too.)

:)

[Katherine]

This book was really funny and precious. I love that fact that animals come in and take over! This book is great for cause and effect and is an even better book for rhyming!

[Courtney Collins]

This book is full of descriptive words that would be perfect in a writing lessons.

[Mandy]

All was quiet at the Critter Cafe until hungry and obnoxious animals came in and treated the place like a zoo!

[Alicia]

A cute story for preschoolers.

[Angie Quantrell]

Things are pretty slow until a bus load of critters descends on a quiet cafe. As imagined, chaos livens things up. Crazy tale told in rhyme.

[Jamie]

Would be fun to read at storytime for a food theme. Opportunities for audience participation. surprise ending

[Erin]

My son absolutely loves this book. It is cute and clever, with great rhyming and illustrations throughout.

[Yvette Tellez]

I liked how this book was written to make kids laugh and react while reading! I can see children responding positively to the silly animal characters and zany illustrations. My critique of this book is that it does not articulate any important messages and that the plot is generally unclear at times.

[Savannah Crider]

This is a great rhyming book. It is about a cafe who gets bombarded with critters and the cook and waiter get very overwhelmed. It doesn't really have a message or lesson behind it, but young elementary students will still love it. It is a fun read aloud as a filler activity. This will help students with rhyming words and is a great book for students who like rhyming.