Moondog by Alice Hoffman and Wolfe Martin starts off as an eerie tale of impending doom it seems like. Yumi Heo's weird cutout style totally adds to the tone. Her collages (done in watercolor mostly, I think) lack perspective. Houses stick out at odd angles, there are gaps between objects and the scenes they've been pasted into, etc. Even the text is sometimes placed inside of shapes in the pictures (linoleum tiles for example). It's pretty cool to look at. A puppy is left on Michael and Hazel McKenzie's front step one night amidst the total destruction of their front yard. They keep the puppy, eventually naming him Angel to match his attitudes and behavior. But then one night about a month later, Angel disappears from their kitchen under equally strange circumstances as he arrived. Michael and Hazel's search for Angel leads them to the house of the neighborhood recluse, ironically named Ms. Mingle. The story's climax occurs at Ms. Mingle's house as the children try to save their dog but end up learning the truth about Angel, Ms. Mingle's dog and Ms. Mingle herself (surprise, surprise she's not as bad as she seems!). This is about the time the book changes mood/tone, once again aided by Heo's illustrations which take on lighter colors and a little more continuity. The kids help Ms. Mingle throw a Halloween party and all the trick-or-treaters and their parents stop by...the end. If you're like me, you might be feeling like you missed something at this point. I think you'd feel even worse if I gave you the whole story about the dogs and Ms. Mingle's reputation...I got to the last page and started flipping back, because I was sure I had to have skipped a page or two, only to discover I had not. So I guess the point of the story was not to judge a book by its cover or, as the last page says "Every puppy deserves to be a Moondog at least one night a year!"--oh wait, maybe that's a metaphor. For Ms. Mingle's transformation as well. Oh...I guess that's better. Well, at any rate, it was still a fun read.
Friday, March 20, 2009
they named him angel, because that's what he seemed to be.
Moondog by Alice Hoffman and Wolfe Martin starts off as an eerie tale of impending doom it seems like. Yumi Heo's weird cutout style totally adds to the tone. Her collages (done in watercolor mostly, I think) lack perspective. Houses stick out at odd angles, there are gaps between objects and the scenes they've been pasted into, etc. Even the text is sometimes placed inside of shapes in the pictures (linoleum tiles for example). It's pretty cool to look at. A puppy is left on Michael and Hazel McKenzie's front step one night amidst the total destruction of their front yard. They keep the puppy, eventually naming him Angel to match his attitudes and behavior. But then one night about a month later, Angel disappears from their kitchen under equally strange circumstances as he arrived. Michael and Hazel's search for Angel leads them to the house of the neighborhood recluse, ironically named Ms. Mingle. The story's climax occurs at Ms. Mingle's house as the children try to save their dog but end up learning the truth about Angel, Ms. Mingle's dog and Ms. Mingle herself (surprise, surprise she's not as bad as she seems!). This is about the time the book changes mood/tone, once again aided by Heo's illustrations which take on lighter colors and a little more continuity. The kids help Ms. Mingle throw a Halloween party and all the trick-or-treaters and their parents stop by...the end. If you're like me, you might be feeling like you missed something at this point. I think you'd feel even worse if I gave you the whole story about the dogs and Ms. Mingle's reputation...I got to the last page and started flipping back, because I was sure I had to have skipped a page or two, only to discover I had not. So I guess the point of the story was not to judge a book by its cover or, as the last page says "Every puppy deserves to be a Moondog at least one night a year!"--oh wait, maybe that's a metaphor. For Ms. Mingle's transformation as well. Oh...I guess that's better. Well, at any rate, it was still a fun read.
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