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Reviews
Publishers
Weekly
When
Mom announces Cousin John is coming for a visit, the story's protagonists
a boy and his cat experience a series of flashbacks and premonitions
straight out of Grand Guignol. Unbeknownst to Mom, Cousin John is
a bully par excellence. So while she's talking up the visit (hers
is the only voice heard in the book) with bubbly exhortations such
as, "for the whole weekend, we'll do just what you boys want to
do," the heroes recall with horror the time John dangled them over
an alligator pond, and gird themselves for upcoming games of pretend
pirate play in which John will force them to walk the plank into
a pit of porcupines and barbed wire. All seems lost until Mom reveals
Cousin John's Achilles heel, which inspires the heroes to hatch
plans of sweet revenge. The premise of clueless-adult-meets-evil-spawn-relative
begins to wear thin about midway through the book. Readers may find
themselves growing a bit numb to Cousin John's crimes, even when
the visual litany is broken up with a few scenes of the underdogs
triumphing. But readers will likely be won over by the hip, edgy
and slightly sinister rendering style of debuting illustrator Lilly.
His button-eye, expressive characters and humorous attention to
detail recall classic comic-strip characters. Broach's (Wet Dog!)
chirpy, keenly observed text acts as an effective comic foil to
her collaborator's vision of an all-in-the-family near-apocalypse.
Ages 4-up. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
School
Library Journal
K-Gr
3- When his blissfully out-of-touch mother announces Cousin John's
upcoming visit, Ben and his cat flash back to all their previous
encounters with this obnoxious relative and immediately start worrying.
The lively text consists entirely of Mom's happy chatter about the
fun the boys will have playing "cowboys-and superheroes- and magicians,"
but the accompanying illustrations tell a very different story,
in which Ben usually plays John's hapless victim. Just as Ben and
his cat are heading for the door, planning to escape, they learn
that poor John has developed a violent allergy to felines and suffers
terribly if one so much as approaches him. So, with high-fives and
sidesplitting laughter, they roll out the red carpet and prepare
to welcome their guest with open arms and plenty of pet dander.
Barbara Bottner's Bootsie Barker Bites (Putnam, 1992) tells much
the same story, but Broach's version, featuring male characters
and radically different art, is by no means redundant. In Lilly's
cartoon illustrations, created with pencil and digital color, the
backgrounds are busier, the color scheme is harsher, and Cousin
John looks like Eddie Munster gone evil. A fun choice for all collections.
Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC Copyright
2006 Reed Business Information.
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