The Blunder of the Rogues [Hardcover]

Tim Egan (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

With his trademark wit and wry sense of humor, Tim Egan spins a tale of a life of crime. The Rogues, a shamefully poor bowling team, distraught at their inability to do anything well, are seduced into a life of crime. At last they believe they have stumbled upon something they might just be good at. Lured further into the seedy underworld by Vincent the Goat and the Sheep Lady, they are persuaded to attempt a bank heist. But this goes awry and the four friends wind up in the slammer with seven years' hard labor, and plenty of time to think about the error of their ways. In his most hilarious work to date, Tim Egan once again deftly delivers his point with offbeat humor and delightful illustrations and leaves us with a happy, unexpected ending.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Egan, who honed his hard-boiled voice in Friday Night at Hodges' Cafe and Chestnut Cove, forays into tough-guy turf with this story of four decent fellows gone wrong. The suitably noir setting, subtly rendered in watercolor and ink, is a coastal town of quaint brick buildings and antique roadsters. The animal characters wear felt hats, vests and rumpled coats with a 1930s-era fashion flair. Narrator Skunk ("I'm actually a raccoon, but I guess I didn't bathe enough when I was younger and the nickname stuck") belongs to a bowling league called the Rogues, which includes a walrus, a gorilla and a cardsharp rat. Terrible bowlers all, the Rogues decide to form a gang instead. They start with such minor infractions as crossing against traffic lights and stealing hubcaps "because it's a crime and we need the practice." Things turn uglier when a conniving goat and a villainous ewe known as the Sheep Lady put them up to robbery. After cops (depicted as pigs) foil the Rogues' bank heist, the antiheroes land in the slammer. Via Skunk's gruff, Bogie-esque commentary, Egan shows how misdemeanors can escalate and how neophytes can be manipulated by experienced cons. The unsentimental plot, which goes from droll fun-and-games to a much more serious situation, forwards a distinct crime-doesn't-pay message. Egan challenges picture-book conventions, but with mixed results: an epilogue, which unconvincingly shows the repentant perps all grown up and in meaningful relationships, points to the difficulty of fusing grade-school entertainment with jaded adult hindsight. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Egan's already strange universe (Distant Feathers, 1998, etc.) continues to expand with this weird and terrific story of a bowling team gone wrong. They are the Rogues, a motley band of creatures--raccoon, ape, rat, walrus--who are bad at bowling. One night, after a few particularly awful games, the frustrated ape kicks over a can of trash. It feels so good to all of them that they start down a path of subversive behavior: ``Crossing the street when the light said `Don't Walk.' Scaring pigeons. We felt dangerous.'' They encounter Vincent, who becomes their mentor, and the sheep lady, who trains them in the art of bank robbery. It's all a set-up; Vincent and the sheep lady go free, while the Rogues get seven years each in the slammer. Prison, though scary, does them good, and afterward the Rogues become prosperous and decent citizens of the community. Perhaps readers should just sit down and allow the barking unconventionality of this picture-book topic to wash over them. As ever, Egan's richly atmospheric artwork adds immeasurably to the story, evoking every reformed tough-guy movie ever made in plotting and narration, and just as classic. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; 1ST edition (March 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395910072
• ISBN-13: 978-0395910078
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #249,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tim Egan is the author and illustrator of several offbeat and humorous tales for children. Born in New Jersey, Tim moved to California to attend the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He still lives in southern California with his wife, Ann, and their two sons.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Off Our Rockers, November 23, 2002

By 

Elaine Smith (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blunder of the Rogues (Hardcover)

My two sons, 5 and 7, and I are hard core Tim Egan fans who simply cannot get enough of his dead-pan humor and wonderful mastery of the understated. All you need to know is that this book begins with the criminal arrest of the main characters and if that's not an unconventional jump-start to a childrens' story I don't know what is...We have favorite lines from every one of Tim Egan's books and shout them out to each other at appropriate moments. Blunder of the Rogues has given us, "The little old sheep lady was off her rocker. A fruitcake. A weird and scary little ball of wool." You'd be surprised how often this has served to encapsulate various moments in our daily lives. We give thanks there's someone as strange and original as Tim Egan out there writing for children (and the parents who read to them.) We never tire of Mr Egan and his unique voice.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blunder of Sucess, July 9, 2000

By 

PD - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blunder of the Rogues (Hardcover)

I quite enjoyed this story. I read this book for a Children Literature class and found the book a good tool to show children that crime does not pay. The author had a nice hopeful ending to where the Rogues made a better decision after prision and become more productive with their lives.