Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Mr. Mocker

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

 

 

I liked this book third best because the book is about the mystery of the mocking bird and now I am going to tell you what I mean. Well the story is about two little green forest people and a mocking bird. And near the end of the book it becomes about all of the little people in the green forest and the green meadows. And if you want to know, those two little green forest people are Sammy Jay and Sticky Toes the tree toad, who people say were talking in the night when they were really sound asleep. But soon everyone found out it was the Mocking Bird that was making all the noise in the night. And at the end they had a little party and everything turned out fine. Review by Mairead Hynes Age 6

I'd love to know what book "Super Tim" read, as nowhere in this book did ANYONE say "Wow, there goes Mr. Mocky". In fact, this is a very good book which we've had for about 2 weeks and my 4 year old has had me read repeatedly. We cover about 3 chapters a night at bedtime. It teaches that playing tricks on your friends is NOT the way to keep them, and can actually cause people a lot of trouble. I highly recommend it - along with all of the other Thornton Burgess books!

This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. Plus, unlike many of these Dover editions of Thornton Burgess' books, it has honest-to-god original Harrison Cady illustrations.

Harrison Cady did two sets of drawings for this title:
-- Published by Little, Brown, with 6 full-page grayscale illustrations.
-- Published by Grosset & Dunlap, with 14 full-page line drawings, including line-drawing versions of all 6 original grayscale illustrations in the Little, Brown editions, plus many smaller line drawings.

This Dover edition has the 6 grayscale illustrations from the Little, Brown edition. In the Little, Brown edition, they were on plates (higher quality paper), while in this Dover edition they are on the same paper as the text. That does affect the quality of the illustrations a bit, but they still look quite good. Kudos to Dover on getting it right for this title. And at such a low price!

If you like these illustrations, I'd recommend finding a used copy of the Grosset & Dunlap edition too. Cady did those decades later, after he had grown as an artist. Even though the Grosset & Dunlap line drawings are simpler than the Little, Brown grayscale illustrations, they are more charming. On the other hand, the Little, Brown grayscale illustrations better show Cady's remarkable vision for Burgess' creatures.

Wow...that sums up my reacation to the 'Adventures Of Mr. Mocker'. The book is a collection of the various exploits of the main character, an inspirational Mr. Mocker. Throughout the book Mr. Mocker, we'll call him "Mocky", trouces here and there with escapade after escapede, only to land himself in more schemes as his friends and enemies alike exclaim "There goes Mocky on another one of his grand ventures!" What I liked most about this book was that the title left so much to the imagination. Mocky could be doing anything throughout the book, for one man's nap is another man's adventure!

Even though I have never read this book, I whole heartedly encourage everyone to do so. Reading this book will provide you with (depending on your reading speed) hours of escape from your ho-hum life, as you gleefully tag along on Mocky's Adventures!