Why a Disguise?

A whimsical children's guide to living incognito demonstrates the pros and cons of donning a disguise as a means of escaping such life perils as setting the table and the class bully. By the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

PreSchool-Grade 2?This story starts on the title page, when a young boy acquires a discarded mask (glasses, nose, and an attached beard). Next, he faces some of life's least-favorite challenges (meeting a bully, eating lima beans, being pinched on the cheek), and seems to successfully avoid them with the help of the disguise. Numeroff has again found the level of humor that so delights youngsters. They will laugh out-loud at the tricks brought to life in McPhail's playful ink-and-watercolor drawings. A good choice for story times and for sparking discussion of other handy uses of disguises.?Kathy East, Wood County District Public Library, OH
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Less clever than some of her previous work, Numeroff's (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers) latest tale will still entertain fans. Kids will automatically warm up to her ingenuous narrator as he shows how a disguise is "a very handy thing to have around" and then outlines the do's and don'ts of deceptive dress. Donning a Groucho-style glasses-and-nose mask complete with an attached beard, the resourceful fellow demonstrates how such a disguise can help "you" avoid being told "It's your turn" by the dentist's nurse, let you off the hook when your mother tries to serve you lima beans and prevent visiting relatives from pinching you on the cheek and telling you how much you've grown. Youngsters will be tickled by the exaggerated power of this minimal disguise, which lets the boy hide his identity even from his parents. Yet it is McPhail's (Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore!) lighthearted watercolor art, flooded with droll visual tidbits, that will get the laughs here. A bathtime scene is especially funny as Mom casts a cool, appraising eye at the narrator, half-naked beneath his oversize beard. In the end, however, wholesomeness prevails: as the boy's parents tuck him into bed, Numeroff reminds readers that "it's nice to know that you're still you." Ages 4-6.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 4^-8. Pictures on the copyright page set up this splendid story that celebrates children's delight in putting something over on grown-ups. A disguise--a beard, a glaringly red nose, and a pair of green glasses--found in a garbage can inspires some imaginative action on the part of a little boy, who uses his new identity to add comical zip to his daily activities. With every turn of the page, there's new mischief, convincing and ridiculous at the same time: "Wear it when relatives come over . . . they won't pinch your cheek and say, `My, how you've grown.'" "Don't lend it to your sister. She might put it on when it's her turn to set the table." McPhail's signature characters are easily recognizable, but his watercolors here are lighter and brighter than in many of his recent books. He has used fewer dramatic, cross-hatched details, too, relying more on lightly sketched outlines. But the pictures catch the quiet comedy perfectly, with much of the fun coming from seeing the grown-ups so surprised. Then, too, there's the delicious thrill of pretending to be someone else and the tantalizing prospect of little hands holding the reins of power for a change. Stephanie Zvirin