With big smiles plastered on their faces, an apple and a pear invite the reader into Adam Rex's (School's First Day of School) Nothing Rhymes with Orange, asking who "wouldn't travel anywhere/ to get an apple or a pear?" As the page turns, more happy, anthropomorphized fruits join in on the fun: a banana surfs by, waving at a plum and a Speedo-clad peach ("And if a chum hands you a plum, be fair and share that tasty treat!/ Hit the beach in your cabana/ with a peach or a banana.").
"Hey, are you guys going to need me for this book?" asks the orange from the corner of the page, "[j]ust wanted you to know I'm available in case something comes up." The grapes in their capes swoop past the orange to join the dancing "healthy happy colorful and cute" fruit.
Knowing full well that nothing rhymes with him, the orange sulks as the pages become more and more packed. A "lychee" joins the cast, rhyming with "peachy" and, eventually, "Friedrich Nietzsche" ("FRUCHT!"). The scheme stretches the terminal and internal rhymes, becoming ever more forced in an attempt to fit in all the fruit: "If a pear gets lost at night/ and meets a wolf, who takes a bite,/ then does that pear become a pearwolf when the moon is full and bright?/ Will the apple have to grapple with this pear with fangs and hair?"
At this point, the jealous, lonely and frustrated orange has had it ("This book's sorta gone off the rails. I'm glad I'm not a part of it."). But when a grape in a cape flies by and ties the pearwolf to a chair, the morose orange moans, "[o]h, who am I kidding... this book is amazing. Happens every time... me and kumquat: always ignored." Grumpy and left out, the orange skulks onto an empty page to mope--where the apple finds him. It turns out that "the fruit are feeling rotten, 'cause there's someone they've forgotten./ It's the orange./ He's really smorange./ There's no one quite as smorange as orange."
Rex's photo collage illustrations are bold and silly, all the fruits bursting with personality as they ride skateboards, wear suits, sit on antelopes and march to the beat of their own rhyme. The poor orange is a sympathetic character, and the illustration of his eventual inclusion is an ending readers are sure to visit time and again. Whether read aloud or solo, the bright illustrations, funny rhymes and happy ending make this a thoroughly enjoyable story. And what does "smorange" mean? Take the journey with the orange to find out. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness
Shelf Talker: An orange feels left out of the fruit party because nothing rhymes with him in Adam Rex's playful and sweet Nothing Rhymes with Orange.