This Is a Great Place for a Hot Dog Stand - Hardcover

Saltzberg, Barney

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786800704 ISBN 13: 9780786800704

Publisher: Hyperion, 1995

Synopsis

Izzy tries to save his hot dog stand from Madame Moola Moo who is planning to build a shopping mall on the same spot

About this title

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1?Amusing illustrations and snappy text combine to create this cheerful story about the triumph of individual enterprise and ingenuity over seemingly more powerful forces. Izzy, stuck on a factory assembly line, is lured by the great outdoors and the smell of hot dogs. He quits his job, builds a hot-dog cart, and sets out to find the perfect spot to start his business. He sets up shop on an empty city lot and soon things are booming, mostly due to Izzy's good business sense. Then Madame Moola Moo comes along. Humorously attired in a fur coat that covers everything but her snooty nose pointed high in the air, this millionaire maven wants to build a mall on the spot where Izzy's small shop now stands. Immediately his customers rally to his side and he delivers an impassioned speech and a tofu dog to the woman. At the last minute?with the wrecking ball ready to destroy Izzy's dream?Madame Moola Moo's helicopter appears dramatically overhead and the lady accommodates the stand. This is a feel-good story with an intelligent, well-paced text and appealing cartoon characters of all shapes and colors. Pair this with other tales of hopes, dreams, and food like Maryann Kovalski's Pizza for Breakfast (Morrow, 1991), Melanie Greenberg's My Father's Luncheonette (Dutton, 1991), or Molly Bang's The Paper Crane (Greenwillow, 1985).?Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

The only thing certain about Izzy-a pastel-blue, bipedal thingamajig with a light-yellow horn on his snout-is that he loves hot dogs. Quitting his factory job, he builds a hot dog cart and, after searching for the ideal locale, sets up shop in a vacant lot. But the lot's owner, Madame Moola Moo, announces plans to bid a mall on that very site, and a compromise is reached only when Moola samples "a tofu dog with sauerkraut, mustard, and grilled onions." In creating this non-human cast, pals, Saltzberg (Show-and-Tell) makes a sort of anti-discrimination statement-as Izzy implores Moola, "[My stand] is a place where it doesn't matter if you have scales or fur; if you're green, purple, or blue; if you like knockwurst or kosher." Yet an awkward vagueness clouds this enterprise. Madame Moola Moo, for instance, hails from Heifersville, but looks nothing like a cow. The only clear message is that malls are bad and small businesses good. This underdone offering may leave some readers wondering where's the beef. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0786800704
• ISBN 13: 9780786800704
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32