Goodnight Opus - Hardcover

Berkeley Breathed

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316108537 ISBN 13: 9780316108539

Publisher: Little, Brown, 1993

Synopsis

As he prepares to listen to his favorite bedtime story for the 210th time, Opus decides to change the ending, and he and a beast with taffy blue toes embark on an out-of-this-world adventure.

About this title

About the Author:

Berkeley Breathed is a cartoonist, novelist, director, and screenwriter, best known for the popular comic strip Bloom County. He has written and/or illustrated many books for young readers, including Red Ranger Came Calling, The Last Basselope, Goodnight Opus, and A Wish for Wings That Worked.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1 Up-This imaginative bedtime story pokes gentle fun at a childhood classic and encourages children to "depart the text" occasionally and search for new adventures. Opus the penguin is snuggled up in bed, wearing his bunny jammies and listening to the 210th reading of his favorite bedtime story when his sweet old grannie starts to snooze. With a friend or two in tow (one cleverly constructed from a pillow and a smiling balloon), Opus decides to head for the Milky Way. After several brief stops (one to take a dip in the reflecting pool with Abe Lincoln; another to commiserate with an overworked tooth fairy), the penguin and his pals arrive at their destination, where they feast on ice cream with a crowd of cheerful cows. Back home, Granny wakes up to discover Opus asleep on the kitchen floor with a pint of ice cream clutched in his hand. The comical illustrations allude to Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon, as does the bouncy, rhyming text. The art is similar to that in Breathed's cartoons, but has a broader, more Disney-film feel. Animals and people are not realistically portrayed, but are rounded, exaggerated caricatures. While there are occasional glimpses of Breathed's typical barbed wit, the general tone of the story is less sarcastic than that of his cartoon collections. This gentler tone, along with the popularity of the title he parodies, makes the book accessible to a wide age range. While the most likely audience consists of "Bloom County" and/or "Outland" fans, even libraries without his previous titles may want to consider this one.
Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0316108537
• ISBN 13: 9780316108539
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1