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Title: The Web Files by Margie Palatini ISBN: 0-7868-0419-X Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.73 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fun for both children AND parents alike
Comment: What a fun and funny book Margie Palatini has written--and Richard Egielski's cartoonish yet deadpan illustrations complement it beautifully. Palatini has taken the "Dum de dum dum" theme from TV's long-ago "Dragnet" and applied it here to a barnyard mystery. Sounds simple, and simplistic, but she soars in weaving into the story all sorts of fairy tale and nursery rhyme goodies--not to mention wonderful wordplay, like:
"A lot of squawking going on down in the coop area, Ducktective Web. Looks like fowl play. Report says feathers are flying. Chief says we should check out the chicks."
"Chicks?"
"Check."
"Let's fly." DUM DE DUM DUM . . .
Palatini works in Peter Piper and his pack of pickled peppers (upping the ante by calling them perfect and purple as well), a falsely accused Little Boy Blue who offers the alibi that HE didn't do it because he was under the haystack, fast asleep--which the witnesses then confirm with: "The sheep were in the meadow. Cows in the corn." Swing back again quickly to the "Dragnet" end of things and the author makes one of the suspects an actual Dirty Rat (aptly named Ratzo).
This is fun for children and possibly even more fun for their baby boomer parents. It's a great read.
Rating: 3
Summary: Cute
Comment: Dragnet (dum de dum dum), nursery rhymes (Little Boy Blue), James Cagney (you dirty rat), and Hawaii 5-O (Book 'im, ducko) all contribute to this clever detective tale, and the typeface looks like typewriter type, just as a detective's report would have looked before computers.
The inventive use of other sources and the logical detection of the plot make this a winner for adults. I can't wait to see how my four-year-old grandson likes it.
Parts of some illustrations didn't seem to have anything to do with the story, but the lettuce leaf hanging from the dirty rat's chin is perfect, though obvious.
If the children you read to like mysteries, try the Nate the Great series by Marjorie Sharmat. They are easy-to-read books and great logic puzzles for the young.
Rating: 4
Summary: A cop show tailor made for the preschool set
Comment: Let's say you're a parent that loves nothing more in the entire world than to sit down and watch a little "Dragnet" on the telly. Now let's say you're that same parent, but you'd like to instill the wonders of Jack Webb in your little one. Enter Margie Palatini and Richard Egielski's, "The Web Files". More "dum de dum dum"s than you could shake a fist at.
Bill and Web (partners) are working the barnyard shift when they hear trouble ah-brewing. Someone's been pirating a peck of purple peppers (ready for pickeling). It's off to confront he usual suspects, when our heroes get a lead. In the end, you can rest assured that the dastardly villain will have met his just desserts and our brave ducktectives can work another day.
There are people who will buy this book, read it over and over, and love every minute of it. They'll revel in the exceedingly terrible puns that crop up with frightening regularity. They'll soak up the detective atmosphere (a combination of "Dragnet" and Ed McBain). They'll never get bored with this puppy, and that's all right. There really are some nice things in this book. Egielski's adept illustrations compliment the rising action, best displayed in a scene in which a variety of fairy tale characters hound the police precinct with tales of woe. I was especially taken with the third degree our heroes give a distraught Little Boy Blue.
As for myself, the aforementioned scenes are gold. But the puns.... lordy begordy the puns. Admittedly I have a low pun tolerance. If you can read the following sentence without twitching, then this is undoubtedly a good book to get: "A lot of squawking going on down in the coop area, Ducktective Web. Looks like fowl play. Report says feathers are flying. Chief says we should check out the chicks." You get the idea. I, personally, had problems with that sentence, but that's just me. Other people will adore this book. It does have some nice touches here and there and is chock full of enough movies and cop shows to bring a chuckle every other page. If you like a good rousing yarn and don't mind slightly painful text, this is the perfect book for a dark and rainy night. Hint: Have your kids hum the "Dragnet" closing music when the book's villain is tried and convicted. The book supplies all the "Dum de dum dum"s itself.
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Title: Piggie Pie! by Margie Palatini ISBN: 0395866189 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 18 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: Zoom Broom by Margie Palatini ISBN: 0786814675 Publisher: Disney Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Earthquack! by Margie Palatini, Barry Moser ISBN: 0689842805 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Bedhead by Margie Palatini, Jack E. Davis ISBN: 0689823975 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Bad Boys by Margie Palatini ISBN: 006000102X Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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