The Lost And Found - Hardcover

Teague, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590846191 ISBN 13: 9780590846196

Publisher: Scholastic Press, 1998

Synopsis

When their math teacher sends them to see the principal, two boys risk further punishment by following a new girl who has disappeared into the lost and found bin looking for her lucky hat.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Teague developed his writing and painting talents without formal training but with a healthy dose of imagination. Each of Teague's books starts as notebooks full of sketches and scribbles, strange little drawings, and phrases that seem mostly cryptic that suddenly come together, he explains. His books tackle everything from first graders coping with life on Mars to Shakespearean characters coping with life on earth. Mischievous dinosaurs, witty dogs, nightmare haircuts, messy rooms, closet monsters all find their way into Teague's wildly inventive books. Teague has also collaborated with many critically acclaimed authors, including Jane Yolen, Audrey Wood, and Cynthia Rylant. He lives in upstate New York with his wife and two daughters. For more information about Mark Teague, visit scholastic.com/tradebooks

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 3-Wendell and Floyd show Mona, the new girl in school, the Lost and Found, hoping to help her find her lucky hat. When she disappears into the large box, the boys follow her and together they explore an underground world filled with misplaced objects ranging from baby dolls to pirate treasures. As they wander, they note several times that "you can't get lost in the Lost and Found." When they finally reach the hat room, Mona realizes that the missing item was in her purse all along. The boys each pick out a lucky hat for themselves, and the children return to school. Though the idea of a mysterious world of Lost and Found is intriguing, this book has less humor and excitement than readers have come to expect from Teague. His vivid acrylic paintings fill the pages with color, but the comic possibilities are never fully explored. The framework of the story is similar to The Secret Shortcut (Scholastic, 1996), which also features Wendell and Floyd, but the adventure here is less satisfying. There are assorted odd images scattered throughout the pages, but the scenes aren't as vivid and surprising, and the story lacks the crispness of the earlier title. Teague's eye-catching illustrations and his knack for capturing the imaginative possibilities of childhood are still engaging enough, but it is hard not to wish that Wendell and Floyd's next adventure will be a bit more lively.
Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The hapless Wendell and Floyd from The Secret Shortcut are in trouble once again (oddly, their teacher finds them suspect when they miss their math test due to an alleged giant squid in the bathroom). As they wait outside the principal's office, they're pulled into yet another adventure. In pursuit of classmate Mona Tudburn, who is searching for her missing "lucky hat," they tumble into the Lost and Found box. The bottomless container yields lots of surprises; caverns and passageways full of stray items (a bowling pin, a suit of armor) give way to a room full of hats, where they each find a lucky one of their own. Indeed, by story's end it does seem that their fortunes may finally be changing. Teague's latest sly take on the wild flights of childhood fancy is as entertaining as always, and he doles out his deadpan artistic style with a wink?from the permanently surprised expressions fixed on the boys' faces to such clever asides as a sign for "Atlantis" tucked into a corner of one of the caverns. Shifts in color and perspective signal the scene changes from the ordinary to the fantastical; drab tones fill in the school's upright walls and solid doors, while floral shades define the world of the Lost and Found box, an Oz-like destination with columns and archways that loom and lean, as though viewed through a fish-eye lens. Readers will be delighted to find that the ending leaves the door wide open to further escapades. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5^-7. Teague trots out his goofy imagination yet again, this time in a story about a familiar grade-school fixture, the lost and found. While sitting outside the principal's office anxiously awaiting what they know will be an unpleasant interview, mischievous Wendell and Floyd meet Mona, who seems to have lost her hat. They don't pay much attention until she disappears, headfirst, into the lost-and-found box. After hesitating but a minute, they follow, finding themselves in an odd place, which has not only a cave, a subterranean lake, and a hallway with many doors but also a room full of hats. Teague's lost-and-found land hasn't quite the fantastical visual flair of the realm he created for Audrey Wood's Flying Dragon Room (1996), but children will still love the crazy notion at the heart of the story, and the vivid, color-saturated double-spread paintings have lots of energy and child appeal, as well as a few delightfully silly surprises. Stephanie Zvirin

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590846191
• ISBN 13: 9780590846196
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32