"The unjustly neglected subject of 'gooey, gloppy, mucky, magnificent mud' requires a unique perspective to transform it from the mundane to the celebrated. That perspective is right here, especially in newcomer Stringer's inspired artwork. The joy of a child playing in mud is tied to the change of seasons in such lines as 'A cold sweet smell rises in the ground, like sap in the snow.' [The author] uses spirited language to show a child's playfulness as the mud thaws and comes alive with spring. This blithe view of one of the building blocks of life can come only from close observation; the point of view is at ground level, where readers can visually muck around in all that goo. The transformation of winter frost to mud serves as a spawning stage for the green of the new season; it's a concept treated innumerable times in books but never quite like this. Wallow in it."—Kirkus Reviews