Baloney (Viking Kestrel Picture Books) - Hardcover

Jon Scieszka

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670911437 ISBN 13: 9780670911431

Publisher: Viking Children's Books, 2001

Synopsis

Henry P Baloney lives on another planet but his problems are just like those of all children. He must come up with a good excuse for being late for school or face "Permanent Lifelong Detention". Henry's excuse is this book's story and is of adventures, near misses and that strange feeling you have when learning to read that every other word comes from outer space. The text is full of wonderfully sounding and looking words from other languages and, is as the book claims, "...about way too much fantastic stuff to squeeze into this little space." The pictures must be read as closely as the text.

About this title

Review:

Henry P. Baloney needs to come up with a very good, very believable excuse for being late to szkola yet again--or he's in big trouble with his teacher Miss Bugscuffle. But never fear! Henry has a doozy of a story. You see, it all started when he misplaced his trusty yellow no. zz zimulis. One thing led to another, and before he knew it, he was on a razzo blasting off into space, where he eventually landed on the planet Astrosus. All went well there, as the intrepid explorer entertained the Astro guys with his funny piksas--until they decided Henry and his piksas would be entertaining to eat. Things go on in this vein until somehow, miraculously, Henry P. Baloney ends up back in his classroom, a mere seven minutes late--but still one writing utensil short!

Trust the ultracreative author/illustrator pair, Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!, the Time Warp Trio series, and more), to mastermind a plot this bizarre and yet somehow familiar to any school kid. Sure, Henry P. Baloney is a cute, saucer-eyed, green alien, but he has problems just like you and me--such as the threat of Permanent Lifelong Detention. Remarkably, as Scieszka reports in his afterword, when he received and decoded the transmission of this story (directly from deep space, mind you), it was written in a combination of many Earth languages, including Finnish, Swahili, Latvian, Esperanto, and Inuktitut (decoder included). Go figure.

Caldecott Honor artist Lane Smith must have spent a lot of time in detention, doodling away the hours. His weird, wild, wonderful pictures tell at least half the story, illustrating for readers' enlightenment just what a zimulis ("pencil" in Latvian) or speelplaats (Dutch for "playground") looks like. Fans of this ingenious pair will not be disappointed and may even make a twrf (Welsh for "noise") of joy! (Ages 5 to 9) --Emilie Coulter

About the Author:

Jon Scieszka began to train as a doctor but left to take a course in fiction writing at Columbia University and to become a teacher. He lives in Brooklyn and spends his time writing and talking about books. Lane Smith, an acclaimed author/illustrator, has achieved major success in his collaborations with Jon Scieszka. He also provided the original concept and illustrations for the hit film JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. Lane lives in New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Children's Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0670911437
• ISBN 13: 9780670911431
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32