Charlie Malarkey and the Belly-Button Machine (SIGNED COPY)

Through ingenuity, determination, and sheer grit, Charlie Malarkey and his friend Iggy must stop Ben Bubie and his diabolical machine from stealing belly-buttons in Albany, New York

Grade 1-3 Freudians could have a field-day with this anatomical adventure story, but for six-year-old boys it might just be a belly-laugh. Charlie and his friend Iggy Gowalowicz lose their belly buttons while sleeping. A smarmy salesman, Ben Bubie, offers to sell them replacements, but the boys are suspicious and discover that Bubie has the machine that has stolen their umbiliciand can also replace them. They get their buttons, and Bubie his come-uppance (grotesque, but well-deserved). The humor is, appropriately enough, juvenile: funny names and sounds, slapstick, incongruity, and, of course, navels. Some may find this a bit tedious: there is no striving for economy, and the drama is pretty thin. Baxter's '50s-comics-style illustrations are colorful but surprisingly static overall, although they treat the nightmarish machine in Rube Goldberg-detail. Still, this is a dandy book for readers who delight in being button-holed and handed a lot of Malarkey. Patricia Dooley, formerly at Drexel University, Philadelphia
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this collaboration between the Pulitzer Prizewinning author and his son, Charlie Malarkey wakes up to find his belly button is missing. A man named Ben Bubie arrives, with new and used buttons for sale. No dice for Charlie, who warns his friend Iggy to hide his belly button. But by morning, Iggy is also buttonless. Investigation leads them to Ben Bubie's place of business; the man has invented a terrible machine that both removes and restores belly buttons. The boys read the instructions and replace their own buttons (albeit crookedly), zap another button onto Bubie's nose and silence the machine forever. Baxter's eccentric, engaging pictures bring a zest of their own to the adventure, though the book's wit may appeal to slightly older readers than the picture-book audience.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.