ALA Booklist (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

In this loose variation of the familiar cumulative song, a teacher takes home the class fish, rat, snake, and lizard, then proceeds to swallow them in succession after gulping down a flea (by accident) and a spider (deliberately). In Gammell's typically outlandish illustrations, wildly lined and vividly colored, a crew of horrified young witnesses peers in through Miss Bindley's window. They watch as the teacher, looking increasingly disheveled and nauseated beneath her wild mane of red hair, stuffs each creature into her mouth. With nothing left to eat, one child notes: "Hey! She's staring at YOU!" "Staring at ME? (gulp) How can that be?" Happily, before anything fatal happens to eater or eatee, the children carry her off, evidently believing her loud protest that she would never swallow a child. Though the rhythms are too irregular to be easily singable, this rendition features plenty of crowd-pleasing gross bits that will get kids going.

Horn Book (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

In this takeoff of "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," a teacher consumes more and more outlandish animals, class pets all. When faced with the climactic snack--a child--the green-faced, wild-haired teacher insists: "I would never do that!" Bowen's rhymes will have kids rolling in the aisles between their desks, and Gammell's spiky mixed-media illustrations are fittingly absurd.

Kirkus Reviews

When faced with a long weekend, Miss Bindley decides to bring the class pets home with her, promising her students she'll take good care of them. But when a flea falls from her unkempt hair into her tea and she inadvertently swallows it, she has to get rid of it somehow. So she swallows the spider that crawls down her wall in the hopes that it will gobble the flea. The spying students cannot believe their eyes as the creatures their teacher swallows get larger and more beloved—they are the class pets, after all! When at last all the pets are gone, a student spies Miss Bindley staring at his friend. " Swallow a child?' / The old teacher smiled... / I would never do that!' " Gammell's gleefully messy illustrations give children an original view of teachers' private lives. His characters are full of personality, and textures seem to leap off the pages. This updated version matches the original in futility and repugnancy, but trumps it with a happier, deathless, ending. Class pets beware. (Picture book. 5-9)

School Library Journal (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

Gr 2-4 Miss Bindley takes the class pets home for a long weekend and develops an eerie, extraordinary craving. Following the traditional cumulative rhyme, all of them disappear in a round of Fear Factor -inspired eatinga flea, spider, fish, rat, Jake the Snake, and, as students cry in horror, "She's got our Lizzie!"the class lizard. Miss Bindley, in turn, grows less appealing with the turn of each page. Hair becomes flyaway and frizzy, her cozy robe falls into a frumpy sack, and her face turns-well, a bilious green. Gammell's lively artwork is a colorful combination of watercolor, colored pencils, pastel, and crayon framed by a mix of font sizes and colors. Assisted by conversational responses from Miss Bindley's students, who are spying on her, the tale progresses as tails disappear until the unlikely becomes the outrageous"I know an old teacher who swallowed a child." Would she really try that? The horrifying notion is entertained, but to the relief of readers, is tossed aside in this unusual offering. Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX