<i>Wonkenstein: The Creature From My Closet</i> (review)
2011; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 65; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2011.0852
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Themes in Literature Analysis
ResumoReviewed by: Wonkenstein: The Creature From My Closet Kate Quealy-Gainer Skye, Obert . Wonkenstein: The Creature From My Closet; written and illus. by Obert Skye. Ottaviano/Holt, 2011. [240p]. ISBN 978-0-8050-9268-4 $13.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6. "I'm kind of like a backup singer in the song of life," says twelve-year-old Robert Columbo Burnside, average kid. Not totally wimpy but clearly not totally cool either, Rob has managed to carve out a safe little place for himself in the middle ground of the middle-school hierarchy—that is, until a small creature who appears to be a combination of Willy Wonka and Frankenstein emerges from his closet. Apparently, of the many unread books Rob has tossed into his closet, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Frankenstein decided to commingle and create Wonk. Now the book-bred imp proceeds to make Rob's life anything but ordinary as he terrorizes the neighborhood (with candy and grunts), destroys the family garage, and somehow manages to get Rob involved in a dramatic poetry reading at school. There's a fresh sense of wackiness here that culminates on the final page with the appearance of yet another creature, this time a combination of Harry Potter and Chewbacca. This is clearly one of many recent books that's tonal kin to Diary of a Wimpy Kid; the now-standard line-drawn cartoon figures and speech bubbles [End Page 169] accompany a mostly straightforward text that covers the typical travails of middle school, from dealings with the opposite sex to sibling and parental drama. While reluctant readers may prefer the hero's strict anti-book attitude in Janet Tashjian's similarly formatted My Life As a Book (BCCB 9/10), there's enough humor here to elicit at least a few guffaws from even the most literary averse. Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Referência(s)