Uncle Blubbafink's Seriously Ridiculous Stories - Hardcover

Graves, Keith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0439240832 ISBN 13: 9780439240833

Publisher: Scholastic Press, 2001

Synopsis

This irreverent feast of fractured genres - from history to biography to fairy tale to folklore - features the unforgettable Uncle Blubbafink and his outrageous, hilarious stories.

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Reviews

K-Gr 4-This collection of absurd stories features Uncle Blubbafink, who looks like a combination of an elephant and a bird, except worse. In a cartoonlike mishmash, this unlovable character tells such stories as "Abraham Sandwich and George Washing Machine," in which an Abe Lincoln look-alike (at least he has a stovepipe hat) is furious because George (who looks like an animated washing machine) has cut down his ham trees. This tedious, overwrought style continues in "The Legend of Smoky the Volcano" and "The Dragon Whose Head Was a Station Wagon." The use of different typefaces and the jumble of weird characters are not funny-they're just confusing. Many youngsters would probably find these stories as amusing as body-part jokes, but far better humorous books for this audience abound.

Barbara Buckley, Rockville Centre Public Library, NY

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Graves employs the palette and outrageous humor of his Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance for this nutty volume. "OK, so I'm Uncle Blubbafink. Hello already," growls the title character, a prunish purple guy with a black-and-white-striped elephant trunk and pigeon feet. Blubbafink launches into a nonsense story called "Abraham Sandwich and George Washing Machine," in which a guy in a stovepipe hat (known as "Honest Ham," not "Abe") gets angry when George chops down his ham trees. Next, Blubbafink recounts "The Legend of Smoky the Volcano," about a ferrous-red "volcano pup" who grows too big to keep: "I took Smoky back to his natural habitat and set him free." In another tale he explains that cows say "moo" because they come from the moon. The gnomish Blubbafink appears as both raconteur and actor in the grainy, absurd images, painted in a palette of bilious green and plum violet. Deadpan storybook titles, like "The Dragon Whose Head Was a Station Wagon," juxtapose familiar characters and bizarre elements; variable typefaces blare across the pages, adding to the cacophony. This absurd quartet of tales will appeal to those who find Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith a little too logical. Ages 7-10.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0439240832
• ISBN 13: 9780439240833
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40