Senor Mundo and Me: A Happy Birthday Story - Hardcover

Kim Summers

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810941767 ISBN 13: 9780810941762

Publisher: Harry N Abrams, 1998

Synopsis

Lizzie does not want to celebrate her birthday on an uninhabited island with her parents and her pet starfish, but Senor Mundo, the Earth himself, takes her to Mars, causing her to appreciate the wonders of life on Earth

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Trapped on a "deserted" tropical island with her two bespectacled scientist parents and "a giant computer," Lizzie grumbles about the meager prospects for her birthday celebration. Just as she and her pet Starfish (who travels in a water-filled bucket) start to run away, a "Happy Birthday" greeting emits from the computer. The well-wisher is Se?or Mundo, an image of the world on a wall of screens, who offers the malcontent a gift she can't refuse: an escape to the destination of her choice. She chooses "pink with pride" Mars and discovers a cold, sterile and dust-laden environment that makes her grateful to return to the friendly inhabitants of her island home. Mariscal's cartoon-like illustrations brim with equatorial colors and whimsically capture the diverse range of the earth's ecosystems. However, next to this visual spunk, Summers's narration seems somewhat stiff and calculated. While respectably accomplishing its Earth-appreciation message, the book is strangely devoid of a sense of adventure or humor. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Loosely arranged around a birthday celebration, this meandering tale never finds its focus. Lizzie is stranded on a deserted island with nothing but her ``ever-busy scientist'' parents and a giant computer. In her frustration and loneliness, she and her pal Starfish decide to run away. Seor Mundo (a personified cartoon of Earth) offers them a place to gothe entire world. Other planets vie for her attention, slinging insults at each other until Lizzie chooses Mars for its red color. Hurled through space, she finds Mars to be inhospitable and has to be rescued by Seor Mundo. Following side trips under the sea and into the jungle, Lizzie returns for a no-place-like-home birthday bash. Whiny Lizzie is impossible to like; Mariscal's cartoons have the energetic lines of comic-book art, and provide a fun grand finale. The book never achieves magic, but offers some satisfying glimpses of real adventure. (Picture book. 5-7) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N Abrams
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0810941767
• ISBN 13: 9780810941762
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Javier Mariscal