The Boy Who Ate Around [Hardcover]

Henrik Drescher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 1994 | Grade Level: P and up

Mo doesn't want to eat his dinner of lizard guts and bullfrog heads (actually string beans and cheese souffle), so he turns himself into a ferocious green warthog and eats around it. Children who have been directed to eat "what's good for you" will find much to laugh about in this clever story with zany illustrations. Full color.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A fantasy as delicious as it is malicious introduces raving and ravenous eaters, to wit, the tentacled "bug-eyed slime slusher" and "fire-breathing tyrannosaurus rat." (Rest assured that these creatures look even weirder than their names suggest.) Served a dinner of string beans and cheese souffle, a boy named Mo sees instead a bowl of worms topped with a googly-eyed bullfrog head. Thoroughly dismayed, Mo metamorphoses into a "ferocious green warthog monster" and "eats around" the disgusting dish-i.e., devours everything else. After gobbling up parents and house, Mo-monster No. 1 removes his own head, and out of his body steps a larger "pink-eyed alligator chirper" who chows upon Mo's hometown. Subsequent entities munch the White House, the U.S. and finally the earth; collage elements including tiny buildings and exotic postage stamps indicate cities and towns. Only Mo's grotesque souffle remains untouched. Drescher (Pat the Beastie) draws with a delicate hand, yet his near-omnivorous creations are anything but subtle, and Mo himself has the limp appearance of a ventriloquist's dummy. In balance, however, this gleefully weird picture book finds the redemptive comedy in an all-too-familiar dinner-table disaster. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3-Confronted with an unappetizing plate of lizard guts and bullfrog heads (actually, string beans and cheese souffle), Mo decides to eat around it. Changing into a series of increasingly horrible monsters, he devours his parents, house, community, country and, finally, planet-then, after passing some time (and gas) in space, he changes back to a boy and pours it all back out. His parents, gratifyingly, banish string beans and cheese souffles from the family menu, and take Mo and his best friend downtown for banana splits. Lines of text undulate through wild swirls of large-scale gourmandizing as continents; cities; and misshapen, puppetlike animals and people vanish down Mo's maw. Drescher suspends his rubbery monsters painted in garish, high-energy colors over plain white backgrounds for a busy but somehow uncluttered effect. Occasional international postage stamps link interior spreads to the endpapers-a collage of stamps, photos, rough drafts of the text, color samples, and preliminary sketches that provides an intriguing glimpse into the book's creation. Dish this out to fussy or unfussy eaters, and watch them gobble it up.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (October 19, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078682011X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786820115
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,732,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars makes a good gift, March 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Boy Who Ate Around (Hardcover)

This is a unique book with an unusual sense of humor that children and their parents can enjoy. (it's a bit twisted, but not too terribly disgusting) It is a favorite in our house! (The book also contains some great vocabulary, like "devour" and "rapscallion".)

4.0 out of 5 stars Time to eat the world!, January 4, 2010

By 

Kirara "dragonsonic4" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boy Who Ate Around (Paperback)

"The Boy Who Ate Around" is one of Henrik Drescher's most unusual books I have ever read. Basically, it is about a boy named Mo who does not want to eat his dinner, so he decides to eat around it, which included eating everyone in town.

Henrik Drescher's illustrations are somewhat creepy yet humorous at the same time and his illustrations actually make the book interesting to read. "The Boy Who Ate Around" is a great book for children who love reading about imaginary monsters, but for children who are afraid of monsters, might want to avoid this book.