Where Does Joe Go? - Softcover

Pearson, Tracey Campbell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374483663 ISBN 13: 9780374483661

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2002

Synopsis

A Christmas story for all year round!

Joe's Snack Bar is a favorite summer spot where happy customers from all over town come to buy ice cream cones and french fries. But every time autumn rolls around, Joe shuts down shop and disappears until the next summer. The townspeople all have their own theories about where he goes: "He's gone to the moon," cries tiny June. "He's on a safari," says Charlie McFarley. "In Okefenokee!" screams Mrs. Bodokey. They're all wrong, of course. Joe's actually in charge at the North Pole three quarters of the year, but only Joe and the reader will ever know. Food-and-fun-filled illustrations show how each person imagines what Joe could be up to.

About this title

About the Author:

Tracey Campbell Pearson is the author and illustrator of several books for children. She lives in Jericho Center, Vermont.

From Booklist:

Old Joe with his round belly and snow white beard is a familiar sight at his summer snack shack selling ice cream and other treats. But in the fall, Joe boards up the shack and leaves. Where does he go? That's what everyone wonders. Each two-page spread features fanciful answers to that question. Most of the text appears in sidebars: "`He's gone to the moon,' cried tiny June"; "`He's digging for bones,' said Oliver Jones." The panel shows the town engaged in an activity that mirrors what Joe may be doing. The boy who shovels snow thinks about Joe in the desert on a dinosaur dig; baby June and her mom are searching the heavens, and, perhaps, Joe is selling ice cream to space men. It is the way the comings and goings of the town folk and their invented musing about Joe play against each other that makes the book work so well. As always, Pearson's line-and-watercolor artwork is chock-full of things to see. Whether Joe is in the swamp feeding ice cream to alligators or on Fifth Avenue selling ice cream out of a stand to busy shoppers, the charmingly crowded art allows for lots of laughs. And where does Joe spend the winter? The last page shows him where readers might have guessed--at the North Pole, dressed as Santa, reindeer nibbling at the ice cream in his hands. Ilene Cooper

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0374483663
• ISBN 13: 9780374483661
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Pearson Tracey Campbell