Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey (Brought to you by Beach-Time Brenda™ and the Flavor of Raspberry Ripple), published by Knopf, arrived the same day as Every Cowgirl Loves a Rodeo. That was a good day.
Traction Man, Scrubbing Brush, and family head out for a holiday at the ocean. Traction Man dons his new scuba suit to discover creatures of the rockpool, executes operation picnic, and spends quality time with Grandma's exuberant dog.
But alas, all is not calm in these seas. Soon our hero and his pet find themselves lost and in the strange company of Dollies, who turn out to be more tenacious than their sparkly pink appearance. It's a wonderful play on the image of ditzy Barbie lookalikes. Girls to the rescue!
The hilarious front end papers poke great fun at the dolls with quotes like "may disintegrate if wet" and "unrealistic vital statistics". The manufacturer's description of the Dollies superficial potential versus what the girl and boy use them for is a great twist, the message being that what something looks like is not all it can be when you use your imagination. Like... Scrubbing Brush!
The back end papers include another comic strip that mimics the one from Traction Man Meets Turbo Dog. Reading all three books together will provide quite an activity for a child who can pick up on all of the inside jokes that Grey uses throughout the books. (For instance, they pack Hoopos snacks "ingeniously made of Potato! wear them or eat them!" for the beach which were used as medals in the first book.)
Brilliant and hilarious wonderfulness. A great addition to summer reading.
Posts
1 comment:
I had requested this about a week ago - haven't gotten it yet, but surely soon! I can't wait to read it.
Post a Comment