Customer Reviews

The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mini Grey, likes to do things a little differently. You would expect no less from a woman named after a car, I suppose. Back in the day, Grey's first picture book, "The Very Smart Pea and the Princess-to-be" got her a bit of casual interest by taking a pea's perspective. Her second title, "Traction Man Is Here", roped itself a highly prestigious Boston-Globe Book Award and presented to us the too-often dangerous world of an action figure. Now something entirely different has come along the pike and Grey has given us a book that's primed to knock our socks off yet again. We all know that old "Hey Diddle Diddle" nursery rhyme. You know the one I mean. With the moon loving cow, the fiddle-playing cat, and the dog who finds it all a gas? We've heard it all before, but what really happened to the dish and the spoon? Remember how in the poem they just took off without so much as a toodle-oo? For decades upon decades illustrators and writers have speculated as to the last known location of the intrepid duo. Now, at long last, we have the answer. They fled to New York City and their story is not necessarily a pretty one.

It happened one night. The record was playing, the moon was full, and Dish and Spoon just took off for parts unknown. A quick dive into the ocean, a sail across the sea, and before you know it the twosome find themselves in the Big Apple! It doesn't take long for the pair to hit it big on the vaudeville circuit and for a while it's all fame, fortune, and glamour. Unfortunately they go a little crazy with their dough and before you know it they've been replaced by a hot new act. Trying to get some money from a shady crew of knives, hammers, and tongs just gets our heroes into even deeper trouble. They attempt to rob a bank to pay back their debts but the Dish gets cracked and the spoon serves some time. Years later both have been deported back to Great Britain and in a junk shop the old lovers are reunited once again. And you know, there are people out there who have never seen Dish and Spoon tricks before. It's a whole new world and our heroes are back on top.

Grey first honed her talents for animating inanimate objects in "Traction Man Is Here" and in this book she goes all out on the details. Did you notice that when Dish and Spoon get their first glimpse of Lady Liberty she isn't sporting her usual greenish glow but instead a glorious coppery color? Did you see the evil knives and tongs going down a carnival slide near the end? How about the reappearing Liberty Head nickel that crops up from time to time? When Dish and Spoon are trolling about in their new jalopy, a nickel on the crest of the car identifies the year as 1933. The Liberty Head nickel motif was one of the more interesting and obvious details of the book, but there were plenty of others to catch the eye as well. Reading this book through several times you begin to learn more and more about the details of the Dish and Spoon escape. The cat with a fiddle, for example, seems to be the fellow who inspires the two to run away in the first place, bringing them together again at the end. As with all her books, Grey packs in the images and multiple storylines in new and interesting combinations.

The book is slightly more dour than its predecessor, "Traction Man Is Here". In that book, the most depressing moment in the story was when our hero couldn't defeat the villain because everyone was laughing at him in his bright green jumper. In "Dish and Spoon" one hero is cracked and sent to recuperate in Britain while the other does time for his crime. Still, it makes for a far more satisfying ending and I can honestly say that I've never read a picture book that presents spoon-dish love in such a sympathetic and truly touching manner.

Of course, Grey isn't the first picture book author to speculate on the whereabouts of Baby-We-Were-Born-To-Run Dish and Spoon. Just back in 2001 Janet Stevens came out with, "And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon". And while a lovely looking item and all, Stevens' creation cannot touch Grey's when it comes to pure bonified moxy. Grey brings to life the 1930s and 50s with more flair than you'd ever think possible. If you want to introduce young children to Depression-era America, or just need a couple of fractured fairy-tale/nursery rhyme picture books to pad out your collection, this should be one of the first items to purchase for your list. A tale of adventure, sterling silver, and true love. Fine fine cutlery indeed.

My two sons (ages 6 and 4) love picture books at bedtime. This book's cover caught their eyes. Familiar with Mother Goose nursery rhymes, they were drawn to the iconic pairing of the dish and spoon.

Sadly, this is little more than a second-rate retelling of Bonny and Clyde, replete with loansharking, bank robbery, hostage-taking, torture and prison life.

Yes, you read that right: loansharking, bank robbery, hostage-taking, torture and prison life.

Author Mini Grey manages to throw in a subtle homage to Casablanca and An Affair to Remember but the book's love story ending can't overcome the violent imagery. It was as though she developed the book while watching a weekend of Turner Classic Movies.

However, this book earns a one-star rating (I'd rate it lower if Amazon provided means). I don't want my kids exposed to Bonny and Clyde anymore than I do Night of the Living Dead. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Grey released a zombie picture book entitled "The Undead Adventures of Little Jack Horner."

Grey was awarded the Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Traction Man is Here. I haven't read that book and, after this experience, am in no hurry to pick up another of Grey's children's books.

If you'd like to read more about the famous pair, the dish and spoon, consider this other children's picture book: And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon instead.

My son loves this book!!! We were checking it out at the library for a year, before we realized that we could buy it on Amazon! A great children's book!

"Hey diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon... and the dish ran away with the spoon..." Have you ever wondered what happened to the 'Dish and the Spoon' in that long ago tune? Well... in a modern update by English author Mini Grey readers get reacquainted with 'Dish and Spoon'. In an oversize book, the story picks up with a record spinning a particular tune... i.e., recognizable by Dish and Spoon as they 'whirled around on the moonlit ocean'.

The duo became famous as they performed in a vaudeville show... What follows is only natural with fame -- money, a car, jewelry, furs... in New York City shopping at Bloomingdale's, Tiffany's... Alas, they soon overspend, and borrow from 'A gang of sharp and shady characters...' (literally, sharp utensils!). And what happens after that... as Dish and Spoon are unable to pay back the loan, and tragedy occurs. Oh No! Dish is broken... the tale jumps to twenty-five years later, after Dish had done his time in jail.

The jacket and inside illustrations are stupendously large, colorful, and wonderful, displaying the Statue of Liberty, the Cows jumping over a Liberty-head coin, a limousine, and the shady, sharp characters, no less. Brrrr!

Mini Grey has authored award-winning children's books, including her entrance into the writing field with 'Traction Man Is Here', and 'The Very Smart Pea And The Princess To Be'.

Also recommend books by: J.C. Andrews in his 'Andrew Lost' series; Mary Pope Osborne's 'Magic Tree House, Merlin Mission' series; the Disney Fairies series; and 'A COLOR OF HIS OWN' and other tales by Leo Lionni.

The spoon narrates this version of the dish/spoon tale and it's a wild ride from the beginning. This dish, you see, has quite the taste for adventure and the spoon is so besotted, s/he can't help but follow along: "I don't know where we were going and I didn't care. I knew the dish would take us there."

And, "there" they go. First to NYC, starring in a vaudeville show, where they are a huge hit. But, like many a great adventurer, the dish "got a taste for the high life" and before you know it the money "was all gone." They go into debt to "a gang of sharp and shady characters," and end up on the run.

When the dish is injured, s/he tells the spoon to "run while you can." The spoon, who is clearly the passive character in this relationship, tells us, sadly: "But the dish was broken and so was I. I let them lock me up and turned away from the moon."

The spoon is locked away for twenty five years (!) and, upon release, finds work in a china shop. Lo and behold the dish is there and when someone "put a record on the old gramophone player," the tune inspires them to hit the road once again and entertain.

It's an old story, but Mini Grey shakes it up with dynamic, entertaining and funny illustrations. The "shady characters" who loan the dish and the spoon money? Some scary-looking knives, who cast long shadows. When the dish and spoon run away from said characters, they wear hilarious burglar masks. While I worry about spoon's passivity (Spoon! Listen up: the Dish is bad for you. You can do better), "The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon" is read-aloud fun--perfect for the four- to nine-year-old crowd.

NB: I read this book aloud last night to a five year old and discovered the dish is a she. No definite gender for the spoon, however.

Riotous and nostalgic: A tune. A taste for the high life. "A gang of sharp and shady characters."(Knives). Ruin. Hard time. And finally a reunion that feels no less joyous or heartbreaking for happening to a place setting.

Mini Grey's THE ADVENTURES OF THE DISH AND THE SPOON provides a different spin on the nursery rhyme: here the utensils run off into the night, sail to America, and become a vaudeville act - spoiled only by their very different adventures among street gangs of jagged knives and rusty forks. Young picturebook readers will relish this different take on a classic.

The illustrations in this story are just as engaging as those in Mini Grey's "Biscuit Bear", but this story seems to be missing parts. The story jumps from one part to another without clear and sensible transitions, as if chapters are missing (if this were a longer story). Perhaps the author presupposes that the reader knows more about the nursery rhyme than actually exists, but more detail in the story would be necessary to make this story even half as well-developed as it should be to deserve the fantastic illustrations. I would not recommend this book for parents who like a good, well-developed storyline, but instead you should look for "Biscuit Bear" by the same author.