Modge and Podge

Emma receives a stuffed monkey for her birthday instead of the puppy she wanted and doesn't realize how much she loves it until she throws it away.

PreSchool-Grade 2-- Emma wants a dog for her birthday but is given a stuffed monkey, whom she names Modge, instead. She mistreats the toy, and it seems to retaliate: naughty things which Emma protests that she hasn't done begin happening. Finally she throws Modge out the car window; guilt-stricken, she seeks him out and finds him, along with a homeless puppy, by a garbage can. Emma's mother accepts the pup, and Emma calls him Podge, stating that Modge and Podge are her favorite friends. The characters seem to change without reason. Emma's remote mother at first opposes and then readily accepts a puppy. Emma's conversion from toy damager to toy rescuer seems unlikely, especially as Modge is pictured as an almost malign, unlovable toy. Gluzberg's heavily colored paintings in which shapes of color combine to create features and forms add to the menacing feel of the book. Emma seems alone in an uncaring world; her mother is seldom looking at her and often appears only from the waist down. Even at Emma's birthday party the only guest seems to be Modge. While most children enjoy stories about wanting and getting a dog, this one, with its verbally and graphically unpleasant main character, is unappealing. --Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.