Hold the Macaroni! Crankee Doodle by Tom Angleberger

Doodle: "I'M BORED!"

Pony: WE COULD GO TO TOWN!"

Doodle: NO WAY. I HATE GOING TO TOWN.  THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE IN TOWN.  THEY ALL RUN AROUND AND RING BELLS AND EAT PIES AND THEN THEY YELL AT EACH OTHER TO STOP RUNNING AROUND AND RINGING BELLS AND EATING PIES. THERE IS NOTHING GOOD TO DO IN TOWN.

Pony is clearly bored, too, and a day in town looks a lot better than hanging around with a cranky Yankee who harangues on and on about everything.

Pony suggests that Doodle could shop for a feather for his hat and call it macaroni--which he adds means fancy. Doodle is not convinced.

"SAYS YOU. THAT'S THE SILLIEST THING I EVER HEARD.  IT'S... MACARONI!

YOU KNOW WHAT'S FANCY?  LASAGNA.  LASAGNA IS FANCY.  LASAGNA HAS ALL THOSE RIPPLES ON IT, AND THEN IT GETS BAKED WITH CHEESE AND TOMATOES AND VEGETABLES. THEN YOU CAN EAT IT WITH SOME GARLIC BREAD.

NOW THAT'S FANCY!"

Doodle's plaint rants on and on. He doesn't like to shop! &He has too much stuff already! The new stuff always breaks. It's too far to town and, furthermore, Pony smells too terrible to ride!.   Yada Yada Yada.

It's a cranky Yankee Doodle temper tantrum.

Pony and Doodle glare at each other.

Stalemate.

Then Pony tries another approach.

"HEY! I SMELL LIKE A PONY!  AREN'T YOU THE ONE WHO IS SUPPOSED TO GIVE ME A BATH?  BUT NOOOOOOO!  

BOO HOO HOO! SNIFF. SOB. SNORT."

Tom Angleberger's and wife Cece Bell's Crankee Doodle (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2013) pits a curmudgeonly Yankee Doodle against a persistent pony desperate for a change of scene. Angleberger's narrator cleverly delineates his comic contrarian and his pony boy with the urge to shop till he drops, in dialogue that will ring familiar to parents of young shopaholics. Designed in cartoon panels with quirky characters who speak in thought balloons, this one trots along  merrily, paralleling  the back story of that inevitable trip to town that the old patriotic song describes. Hysterically and historically funny!

"A historical hoot full of goofy, eye-rolling goodness," quips Kirkus in its starred review.