Next, Please! by Ernst Jandl, Norman Junge (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Waiting for the doctor can be nerve-wracking, even for toys. As six injured playthings wait their turn to be called into a forbidding door, their growing apprehension is apparent on their faces. Each time, before the doctor calls, "Next please," the door opens and one happy toy comes bounding out, good as new. That doesn't comfort the last toy in line-a wooden boy with a broken nose. But when it's his turn, the doctor is warm and friendly.

"Your nose again? Don't worry. We'll fix you right up," he says.

Kids will love poring over the pictures to identify each toy's problem and the different ways they handle the wait-some calmly, some by standing on their heads.

Winner of the Bologna International Book Fair's Premio Bologna Ragazzi Award, this charming book is the perfect companion for every child going to a doctor.

Illustrated by Norman Judge

About the Author:

Publishers Weekly

Winner of the top award at the Bologna Children's Book Fair when it was introduced in its original 1997 German edition, this beguiling book transmutes the scariness of a trip to the doctor into a playful fantasy. The text is spare: "Five are waiting," reads the opener, which, as on the other spreads, faces a full-page watercolor. The accompanying illustration shows five broken toys perched on chairs in a room lit only by the bulb from the lamp that swings, interrogation-room-style, from the ceiling, and by the glow escaping from the crack under a closed door. Fine cross-hatching, la Edward Gorey, contributes to the ominous mood. Soon the door opens, and a voice is heard ("Next, please"): a wingless wind-up penguin waddles into the exam room, its wind-up key twisting out its back, as the others look on warily. "Four waiting" lets readers observe the remaining toys sitting apprehensively; "Door opens./ One comes out" depicts the penguin, new wings at its side, emerging triumphantly. The pattern repeats, without variation, until the last spread reveals the smiling doctor, surrounded by his tools, welcoming his final "patient." The doom-and-gloom ambiance gives kids an outlet for their own waiting-room anxiety even as the humor-understated, always sympathetic-puts their fears to rest. Ages 3-6. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz - Children's Literature

The scene is a doctor's waiting room. The five "patients" waiting are toys needing the doctor's attention. The spare text: "Door opens. One comes out." On one page spread: "Next, please. One goes in." acclaimed poem, and One by one the toys go in and come out, fixed good as new. A wind-up penguin has his missing wings restored, the duck on one wheel gets a matching one, the banged-up teddy bear prances out with vigor, and the frog with the Band-Aid on his back returns with a crown on his head. Youngsters can sympathize with the toys' obvious nervous waiting, and be reassured as the smiling doctor, on the last page, says, "Don't worry. I'll fix you right up." Junge's low-key colored drawings won the top 1997 award at Bologna's international children's book fair. The scene in the waiting room changes very subtly from page to page; the single hanging lamp swings from side to side, and the room color changes in the crosshatched background. Each toy reacts while waiting, in ways that children can perceive. Very little is needed here to convey so much. The last in line, a doll with a broken nose, sheds a single tear while waiting alone, but the happy ending is certain. 2003 (orig. 1970), Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers,

School Library Journal

PreS-K-Five broken toys sit on chairs and wait their turn to go behind a mysterious closed door. The dark waiting room is lit only by a bare swinging bulb that shadows them as they apprehensively watch one another go through the door as a voice beckons "Next, please." Even the smiling bouncy return of the newly fixed and refurbished toys isn't enough to reassure those waiting. When the last one, a little wooden boy with a broken nose, is finally called, readers are invited to take a peek inside a brightly lit office as the smiling doctor says, "Your nose again? Don't worry. I'll fix you right up." Jandl's minimalist poetic text perfectly matches the almost ominous, yet oddly reassuring, pen and colored-pencil art that uses cross-hatching as well as differing degrees of light and dark to create a strong atmospheric whole. With a text simple enough for the earliest readers to tackle, this book echoes a child's anxiety and range of emotions while waiting for the doctor and the happy relief when the visit isn't at all as scary as expected.-Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha's Public Library, WI Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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