Despite William Joyce's always solid illustrations, this was probably my least favorite among his collection. The initial premise is interesting albeit a popular topic within picture books--what happens to all the things that disappear? Joyce's concept is that it is creatures known as Mischievians the Homework Eater, Danglers, Lintbellians, RemoteToters, etc. What doesn't work is that not only are the naming conventions of these creatures rather uncreative, but the humor is limited and the text not so much. With explanations that go on for far too long and the length being much larger than that of a regular picture book at 52 pages, I was quickly bored and if I was bored, I can't imagine how much more a child would be. It's only saving grace was the encouragement for children to create and add their own mischievians to the back of the book, which would make it an interesting read for a storytime if it wasn't so darned long.
1 comments:
Agreed!
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