ALA Booklist (Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2015)

Who needs a bath? Skunk does cause nobody's going to come to the surprise birthday party Bear is planning to throw for him unless he beats back that odorous green cloud of funk. Bear tries everything to get his reluctant friend into the water with a bar of soap, adding a swing, a trampoline, and a slide, but nothings works. Skunk, with his jaunty top hat and ratty attitude, is just too sly for cuddly old Bear, and he will not be conned into the pond. Mack uses bold pen and pencil lines for an old-fashioned cartoon effect that is reinforced by a fun color palette and lots of silly, slapstick action, which is heightened by over-the-top sound effects in expressive, colorful fonts. It's a good match for Skunk's wise-guy attitude and Bear's old-time naïveté. Little readers will giggle when they make the connection between Bear's jolly but strenuous exertions and similar "It'll be fun!" claims made by the grown-ups in their own lives.

Horn Book (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

In this sequel to Who Wants a Hug?, Bear intends to surprise Skunk with a birthday party, but there's an impediment: the guest of honor stinks. Each of Bear's attempts to enliven the hygiene routine (e.g., "This swing will make your bath fun") backfires. A glorious Looney Tunes dynamic is achieved through the slapstick art featuring one repeatedly waterlogged Bear.

School Library Journal (Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2015)

K-Gr 2 There's a guidance lesson buried somewhere in Mack's second book about a cheerful bear and his malodorous and cranky skunk friend. Who will come to Skunk's surprise party if he doesn't take a bath? Concerned, Bear makes every effort to show Skunk how much FUN a bath can be, turning himself into a clownish victim when he catapults from a tree swing, bounces too high on a trampoline, and races down a water slide, all resulting in wet Bear. "See? This bath is fun!" he repeats after each mishap. But Skunk isn't convinced. "That bath does NOT look like fun." In a sudden outburst Bear reveals his concern&30;that no one will come to the party if Skunk smells bad. Hearing the word "party," their forest friends assume that a pool party was the plan all along. Even Skunk can't resist a pool party! Mack digitizes his pen and ink on paper illustrations and enhances them in Photoshop, resulting in a vibrant, layered and dynamic finished product. There's a lot of opportunity for predictive and participative reading in this winning title. Match it up with Joe Kulka's Wolf's Coming (Carolrhoda, 2007) for a little "compare and contrast" activity. VERDICT Charming and full of silly action, this book is sure to circulate. Lisa Lehmuller, East Providence School District, RI