by David Levinthal (Author) John Nickle (Illustrator)
Break-in at the Three Bears family home? It could only be one dame. Wicked witch gone missing from her candied cottage? Hansel and Gretel claim it was self-defense. Did Humpty Dumpty really just fall off that wall, or was he pushed?
Here are five fairy-tale stories with a twist, all told from the point of view of a streetwise police officer called Binky, who just happens to be a toad in a suit and a fedora. When Snow White doesn't make it to the beauty pageant, Officer Binky is the first to find the apple core lying by her bed. When an awful giant mysteriously crashes to the ground, upsetting the whole town, Binky discovers exactly who is responsible.
Author David Levinthal and illustrator John Nickle retell these classic stories in the style of a 1940s noir detective novel--for kids!
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"There are eight million stories in the forest. This is one of them," announces bullfrog Binky, the plainclothes cop who investigates situations like Humpty Dumpty's demise and a witch's disappearance in "Hansel and Gretel." Binky starts his day with a call from Mrs. Bear, reporting a robbery. Once Goldilocks confesses, Binky unsentimentally reports, "They'll feed her three meals a day where she's going." Another incident involves "that sweet girl who cleaned for the Seven Dwarfs.... Boy, what a knockout!" When Snow White is poisoned, suspicion falls on the royal judge of a beauty pageant. Following each procedural, a red "case closed" stamp appears across a picture of the jailed or handcuffed culprit. Levinthal, best known for his photography, nails the tone of the Dragnet-style escapades that make up his picture book debut, and Nickle's (Hans My Hedgehog) obsessively detailed acrylics have a sinister edge that suits the mood. His panels are somewhat awkwardly framed in unadorned borders, and the no-frills, sans-serif typeface does little to complement the images or deadpan narration, but readers should still be tickled by these noirish retellings. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Gr 1-4--These open-and-shut cases of nursery-rhyme mysteries are narrated by Officer Binky, a toad with a manner reminiscent of Joe Friday's on the old Dragnet TV show, with his typical "Just the facts, Ma'am" style. In the first of five short stories, the officer gets a call from Mrs. Bear, who is upset because someone broke into the family home, ate their porridge, sat in their chairs, and slept in their beds. Based upon the evidence-a blond hair and an empty bowl, a piece of blue material caught in a chair that has seen better days, and a disheveled quilt on a bed-Officer Binky deduces that it "could only be one dame: Goldilocks!" When questioned, she admits to being the intruder. The intrepid cop assures readers that "they'll feed her three meals a day where she's going, and she'll have plenty of time to rest." Hansel and Gretel, Humpty Dumpty, Snow White, and Jack and the Beanstalk are all similarly treated in eight pages or less with the police officer quickly solving the mysteries behind the well-known tales. Illustrations are presented in a variety of sizes and set off by frames in different colors. At the end of each segment, a red stamp reading 'CASE CLOSED' is superimposed over Nickle's richly colored acrylic artwork. The tongue-in-cheek telling of tales will tickle the fancies of children familiar with the originals.--Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI
Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
The New York Times, August 23, 2012:
"That's the way the nursery rhyme crumbles in these humorous retellings, cast in the world of hard-boiled crime and private detectives."
The Huffington Post, August 6, 2012:
"The first children's book from the wildly creative Levinthal and I hope it won't be the last."