Gorgeous, colorful illustrations filled with detail? Check. Super fun sing-songy rhymes that are perfect for reading aloud? Check. Educational too, as we are introduced to fun collective nouns, like a glint of goldfish and a wake of buzzards? Check! A wonderful book, perfect for storytime!

#ATangleofBrungles #NetGalley

This is a fun story that has a message of be careful what you wish for, but is more a vehicle for teaching the terms for collections of nouns. The best thing about this book are the amazing illustrations. There is a coven of witches and the oldest one decides she want to marry Mr. Brungles. They need to brew up a potion to bring him to them. Into the brew goes various ingredients such as a mischief of mice, a kaleidoscope of butterflies, and a wake of buzzards, all terms that I was not aware of. This would be a lot of fun to teach them to young readers. The story is told in rhyme that doesn't always hit the mark, but is pretty well done. Back to the illustrations. They are so well done and many are a play on words. I love that even when we have a group of animals, that each one looks different or had a different expression. A Quiver of Cobras, are actually drawn in a quiver that would hold arrows, so clever. The story itself gets funnier and funnier as it goes on with a surprise ending. This is a book that could be read over and over and with the wonderful illustrations something new would be noticed with each reading. Readers of all ages will probably learn some new vocabulary with this story. A great addition to a family, classroom, school or public library.

I love the rhyming in this book! The illustrations are also wonderfully done and really add to the story as the witches stir their brew.

I requested and received an advanced reading copy of this book from NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked that this isn’t your traditional rhyming book; it uses witches, and creepy crawlers, and rodents, and bats.

I loved the illustrations; they were colourful, bright, and perfect as they show witches with large noses, talon nails, and backwards feet. I really liked the use of the collective nouns, there were a few I didn’t already know, so I can say I learned something today!

#ATangleofBrungles #NetGalley

One of the coven of witches decides she is ready to marry and she has chosen the handsome Mr. Brungle as her mate. Now, with a multitude of collective nouns -- lounge of lizards, mischief of mice, a quiver of cobras are just a few. The Great Brungle Breww comes together but will Mr. Brungle appear and cooperate in the plan?

I totally loved the idea of the collective nouns. Who knew that multiple cats are a clowder? As fun as the plurals are, the placement is random and the story pretty nonsensical. I think the effort of the collective nouns gets a little lost in the presentation. I will say that the illustrations are stunning in color and rendering. I suggest checking the Look Inside feature to see if it gets your interest or would be suitable as a fun teaching tool.

Source: NetGalley 2020.

A Tangle of Brungles is a children's book written by Shobha Viswanath and illutrated by Culpeo Fox. To summon the handsome Mr. Brungle, a coven of witches stir up the great brungle stew. A lounge of lizards, a mischief of mice and a quiver of cobras are just a few ingredients they toss in to create this terrible broth. But does Mr. Brungle appear? The book is a humorous introduction to some collective nouns.

A Tangle of Brungles is a visually impressive book. The illustrations are bright, bold, and teaming with detail. The texts flows nicely, telling the story of witches looking for love, and naming a variety of collective nouns in the process. I think it was well done although I have to admit some of the rhymes did not work for me, like broth and north. However, overall I liked the flow and the voice in the text. I thought the ending was a fun surprise as well. I have looked up more than a few collective nouns over the years, out of curiosity, and still learned a few new ones in this book. With the sneaking leaning and entertaining text I enjoyed the read very much, but still found the artwork to be my favorite part. I would gladly study the illustrations over and over again and suspect it will be a long time before I stop noticing new things on each page.

Librarians, put this on your Halloween Storytime lists! A Tangle of Brungles is a delightful romp of a tale with fabulous rhymes and incredible illustrations. This is one of those books where everytime you come back to it, you see something new in the pictures. Parents, kids, and librarians alike will love coming back to this tale again and again so do yourself a favor and get this book onto your shelves!

I’ve had the pleasure of working with this book and this publisher. I’m glad I get to work with books like this.

While I like the premise here, it isn't executed all that well. It's a shame, because this could've been quite a cute picture book.

Some witches are feeling restless, and one in particular is feeling... um... amorous? She, along with the others, decide to summon Mr. Brungles with a spell. The ingredients for the spell go into the cauldron, and eventually the witches get... well, a result. It's not exactly the one they--or Mr. Brungles--were hoping for, though.

Setting aside the glaring lack of consent (poor Mr. Brungles is summoned for the pleasure of some old witch, mangled in the process, and then expected to be the love interest of the whole coven--ick!), the story is a little thin and it's glaringly obvious that the plot is just a way to incorporate as many collective nouns as possible. The collective nouns I like. Unfortunately, they're not done consistently; the text for those is set off in coloured caps, but on the very first page, another word is also formatted this way (later, some of the articles aren't formatted like all the others). When a book is trying to teach a concept involving words like this, it needs to be spotless in its execution.

The illustrations are probably the best part. They're creepy and crawly and deliciously dark. These witches would fit in perfectly at Halloween. Unfortunately, the story that's illustrated here is kind of weak.

I'm not sure if I'd really recommend this one or not. It's fun to see all the collective nouns... but the writing and formatting need a bit of cleaning up before I'd hand this to a young reader.