Kirkus Reviews

You've heard of Typhoid Mary. Well, meet Felicity Floo, a snot-ridden little plague child elegantly (in a nauseating way) drawn by newcomer Redmond. Felicity's nose is running, but that doesn't keep her from visiting the zoo and visiting upon its inhabitants the product of her sniffles, which coats her hands after a good nose swipe. Felicity Floo hasn't a clue about that thing called a tissue. Readers watch as she makes her progress through the zoo, leaving a trail of gunky-green handprints upon the beasts. The rhyming couplets have an easy music and simply chart Felicity's encounters with "flamingoes and toucans and owls that flew, / ...a blue-footed booby and rare jabiru." The cautionary tale here hardly lurks, but it's not out waving an admonitory finger either; the medium of this message is gross fun. The watercolors are subdued, though occasionally flashing deep red, purple and orange; the line work is delicate. The animals' faces are hugely expressive, shocked and dismayed. Then there's Felicity, with sunken eyes and red beezer, whom you don't have to like to enjoy. (Picture book. 2-5)

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Felicity Floo fails to wipe her runny nose while visiting the zoo. Despite a posted warning ("Please Do NOT Pet the Animals"), she infects them with her sticky "green, gloppy goo" hands; the illness is thus dubbed "The Floo." The humorous cautionary tale's angular pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations feature waif-like Felicity plastering her paws all over the emus, toucans, and other creatures.

School Library Journal (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

PreS-Gr 2 There is big trouble: "It started one day with a trip to the zoo/When a pale, sniffly girl named Felicity Floo/Wiped her red, runny nose without a tissue." Ignoring the "please do not pet the animals" sign, Felicity goes around petting and riding and cozying up to all the occupants, and they all get sick. The book then ends with the caution: "Her cold got so big/That they named it The Floo./You may not believe me,/But if I were you,/I think I'd go bowling/And not to the zoo." Told in verse with every line ending in a word that rhymes with "zoo," the story may be a little gross, but the overall package is humorous. The distinctive watercolor and ink illustrations in subdued shades of green, gray, and brown are a perfect match for the text. They feature large-eyed, waiflike Felicity decked out in purple and placing her very visible sickly green handprints on every animal pictured. Young readers and storytime attendees will delight in the antics and receive a timely lesson in hygiene as well. Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA