Jake Gander, Storyville Detective: The Case of the Greedy Granny - Hardcover

McClements, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786806621 ISBN 13: 9780786806621

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion, 2002

Synopsis

A series of fairly obvious clues help Jake Gander prove Red R. Hood's suspicions about her granny's strange new look.

About this title

Reviews

Grade 1-3-Jake is called in by Red R. Hood to determine if her grandmother has been replaced by an impostor. Arriving at the scene, it is clear that something is amiss and as the clues mount, the Storyville cop builds his case and ultimately gets his man-Harry A. Wolf (aka Big Bad). While the text is chock-full of witticisms, it is a bit sophisticated, e.g., "They were as sharp as an aged piece of cheddar." "In an ironic twist of fate, he is now working in the Hood division of the Storyville Prison." Fortunately, McClements's creative collages of images, words, and pictures save the book from obscurity. Comical depictions of the villain show large yellow jaws accompanied by a slouching oversized body. The town of Storyville is a mishmash of real-world objects and cartoon scenery. Puzzles abound as each picture poses a pun or story-related clue to figure out. Littered throughout the landscape are references to popular fairy tales, from boxes containing puppy-dog tails and magic beans to pictures of a house made out of a boot and a portrait of a goose with a golden egg. Children will take pleasure in revisiting each illustration and deciphering the cleverly constructed meanings.
Louie Lahana, New York City Public Schools
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

At the start of this deadpan parody of nursery stories and gumshoes, Jake Gander (who's a guy, not a goose) puts down his Once Upon a Times newspaper to field a call from Red R. Hood. "It was a code P.W.T. (Possible Wolf Trouble)," he intones. At the home of Red's Granny, Jake finds a brown beast sprawled under a purple duvet, but does not jump to conclusions: "I decided to take our little party downtown to clear things up." The resolute but dim investigator who appears in black-and-white while all around him is in color inspects this "Granny's" pointy ears and bulging, hard-boiled-egg eyes; later he learns the real Granny is on vacation. Meanwhile, the pot-bellied wolf never resists arrest. With its lockjaw grin and unfocused stare, the silent perp appears more neurotic than predatory, and Red seems quite unruffled by the situation. First-time author artist McClements mimes the punchy first-person style of detective fiction and presents the evidence as snapshots paperclipped to a yellow manila folder. Visual jokes a diagram of Humpty Dumpty's fall, a filing cabinet labeled "Frogs (non-princely)" provide mild levity in the collage illustrations. But unlike the sustained Mother Goose send-up in last year's The Web Files, this book is an open-and-shut case. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786806621
• ISBN 13: 9780786806621
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32