Looking After Murphy - Hardcover

Rix, Jamie; Bendall-Brunello, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0764154664 ISBN 13: 9780764154669

Publisher: Barrons Juveniles, 1656

Synopsis

Granny Lally is quite a character, and kids who open this book are in for plenty of laughs. Granny Lally can't stop telling tall tales—and her grandchildren never know when to believe her. When the kids go off on vacation with their parents, Granny Lally promises to take care of their pet hamster. All goes well for several days—until Granny starts singing a song while taking her bath. It's all too awful for the hamster, who runs away. Granny searches high and low, but she can't find the hamster anywhere. What is she going to do? The wacky solution that Granny Lally finally dreams up brings this comical story to a super-hilarious climax. The full-color illustrations on every page are as funny as the story itself.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Granny Lally is looking after Murphy the hamster. Granny promises not to take her eyes off him, but looking after Murphy is a full-time job and something is bound to go wrong . . . A wonderfully witty tale about every adult?s worst fear: the lost pet!

Granny Lally loves to tell tall tales and her grandchildren never know when to believe her. When the kids go on vacation with their parents, Granny Lally promises to take care of Murphy, their pet hamster. All goes well at first until Granny starts singing a song while taking her bath. It?s just too awful for the hamster, who runs away. Granny searches high and low, but she can?t find the hamster anywhere. What is she going to do? Tell another tall tale?

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 2-Granny Lally chronically fibs (the doctor "-said I have to watch an hour of Celebrity Knitting every day"), which leads her to substitute a similar hamster when she loses her grandchildren's missing pet. Luckily, Murphy has been hiding in his dollhouse home, and he welcomes the new hamster for a spouse. His energetic antics, like eating candy in Granny's pocket while she's visiting the dentist, provide appealing views of mini-mischief. However, the cartoon illustrations overuse pink in facial tones for everyone but the grandmother, and some of the larger portraits seem like rough drafts. The woman's lack of conversion to truth, while not exactly inspirational, is probably accurate to human nature, yet it seems to be an odd choice on which to hang the plot of a story for young children.
Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Jim and Sally love their Granny Lally, but she's got a major credibility problem. For instance, she'll eat all the whipped cream, then tell her grandchildren that the stuff was sour and she was actually doing them a favor. "They couldn't call their granny a liar," writes Rix (The Last Chocolate Cookie), "because grown-ups never lied especially grannies!" Then Granny Lally loses Jim and Sally's beloved hamster Murphy, and tries to foist on them an obvious imposter. As Rix puts it: "Granny Lally crossed her fingers and lied through her teeth." Some children may be taken aback by Granny Lally's failure to own up, but it's clear that she adores Murphy (she even takes him with her to the dentist) and, thanks to her deception, he ends up with a mate the imposter. Bendall-Brunello (Mouse, Mole, and the Falling Star, reviewed above) helps keep the mood light with the fluid, airy lines and sunny palette of his watercolor and pencil pictures the series of illustrations depicting a dripping wet, towel-clad Granny frantically hunting for Murphy have an appealing air of kid-level naughtiness. Youngsters able to acknowledge ambivalent feelings toward the adults in their lives should relish the book's bracing, unsentimental humor. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Barrons Juveniles
• Publication date: 1656
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0764154664
• ISBN 13: 9780764154669
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Bendall-Brunello John
• Edition number: 1