Another Perfect Day - Hardcover

MacDonald, Ross

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0761315950 ISBN 13: 9780761315957

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, 2002

Synopsis

"Life is Rich," sighed Jack, as he settled back in his job as Chief Flavor Tester for the World's Best Ice Cream Company. "This is turning out to be my most perfect day yet!"

But just when he thought things couldn't possibly get any better, they started to get a little . . . funny.

About this title

About the Author

Ross MacDonald has worked as an egg candler, dishwasher, soda jerk, house painter, street artist, papermaker, and printers, but is probably best known as a magazine illustrator. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, and many other publications.

Mr. MacDonald lives in Connecticut with his wife, two children, four cats, and a large collection of 19th-century type and printing equipment.

Reviews

reSchool-Grade 1-Square-jawed, muscle-bound Jack awakens and embarks on a host of fabulous adventures. Shot from a cannon directly into a spiffy blue suit, he grapples with an alligator and conquers a space alien and giant robot from the wings of his personal airplane- all on his way to work as Chief Flavor Tester in the World's Best Ice Cream Company. But then things start going a little funny. Gone is the suit, with a ballerina's pink tutu and baby's bonnet appearing in its place. Gone too is Jack's airplane, replaced by a tricycle. All of a sudden, the coppers are after him. What's happened to Jack's perfect day? Obviously it's all a bad dream and, with a little help from his pajama-clad, apple-cheeked alter ego, young Jack wakes up surrounded by the toys that gave rise to his extraordinary dream in the first place. MacDonald's exuberant illustrations are curvy and bold and hearken back to a bygone era of pulp comics. Characters speak and think in dialogue balloons; exclamations like "Oww!" "Poof!" and "Eeeek!" abound. The book is rich in visual imagery, like a double-page slapstick drawing of a fire hose run amok, or cameos of a chirping robin and warm toast in a toaster. Sepia shades infused with blue and yellow and creamy paper stock reinforce the old-fashioned look. Simple text contrasts delightfully with the energy of the illustrations (a picture of hero Jack holding up a locomotive is accompanied by, "but by now he was running late- so he caught the train-"). Another Perfect Day satisfies the unabashed superhero in all children.
Mary Ann Carcich, Mattituck-Laurel Public Library, Mattituck, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Honey-gold sunlight pours across the pages of this energetic wake-up book, which borrows its metropolitan graphics and beefcake hero from 1930s-40s comic books. According to the nonchalant narration, a fellow named Jack "got up and looked out, got dressed and went out." True enough, but the pictures tell a livelier story. Jack awakens in a circus tent and flexes his action-figure pectorals: "Aaaaahh! Another perfect day!" He blasts off from a cannon and lands in a conservative blue suit, … la Clark Kent (minus the phone booth). On his way to work as an ice-cream flavor tester, he destroys a monster robot and literally "catches" a train as it careens off a bridge. Jack revels in his life, but as he strides across rooftops later on, "things started to go a little funny": he suddenly finds himself wearing an extravagant pink tutu and baby bonnet, the bane of every macho man. "What happened to my perfect day?" he asks in horror. "You didn't wake up yet!" says a boy, dressed in the same style of pajamas Jack himself wore earlier. MacDonald, a magazine illustrator, may rely on the familiar "it was all a dream" outcome (Jack is the child, not the masculine ideal) but shines in his salute to vintage comics and retro printing. He uses a breakfast-time palette of mustard yellow, syrup brown, ketchup red and warm teal blue on antique-white paper, and his sunburst patterns, roiling clouds and voice bubbles convey Jack's super-duper energy. A clean design underscores MacDonald's spot-on pacing, and the ebullient morning images have the intensity of a ringing alarm clock. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

K-Gr. 2. The art is the thing in this delicious parody of a businessman's day. Jack jumps out of bed, so ready for work that he shoots himself out of a rocket, wrestles an alligator for exercise, and catches the train--in both hands--as a little boy in his pajamas slips in and out of the pictures, watching his accomplishments. "This is going to be my most perfect day yet," he remarks. But then things go horribly wrong. Jack's blue suit suddenly turns into a pink dress, and his mode of transportation becomes a tricycle. The little boy tells him to wake up, and Jack tries, but it's not until the child talks him through--with bluebirds, sunlight, and toast--that he succeeds. Then it's clear that Jack is really the dreaming boy. The it's-all-a-dream plot is old, and the story can best be described as simplistic. But the artwork is fresh and new, even if it is retro. MacDonald, a New Yorker cartoonist, re-creates the cartoon-style artwork of the late 1930s and 1940s, starting with a hero who looks like Superman in his Clark Kent mode. He also captures the feeling of the period in the design, lettering, and in the unusual gold-and-blue palette. Even the buff color of the paper is right. Certainly, this will have lots of appeal for those acquainted with the era MacDonald evokes, but young children will also like the look, just as it delighted people the first time around. Come to think of it, the dream gambit may be new to them, too. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0761315950
• ISBN 13: 9780761315957
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: MacDonald Ross
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32