Brave Little Toaster, The [Hardcover]

Thomas M. Disch (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

Feeling abandoned by their beloved master, a vacuum cleaner, tensor lamp, electric blanket, clock radio, and toaster undertake a long and arduous journey to find him in a faraway city.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5 At what point can the pathetic fallacy become lamentable idiocy? When electric household utensils not only speak but take to the open road, when this mechanomorphism is combined with anthropomorphism and when people are run by appliances. A vacuum cleaner, an electric blanket, a lamp and a clock-radio, rallied by the pop-up of the title, leave a vacation cottage unvisited by their owner for over two years to find him in Winnipeg, Canada. On the way they meet a talking squirrel and a villainous recluse who almost junks them in the city dump. Without much strain, they elude this perfectly reasonable end and find their owner's new apartment, settle in with his newer gadgets and arrange to be swapped to (who else?) a decrepit ballerina who loves them for their special purposes. Disch writes gracefully (well above the vocabulary level indicated by the format), lacking only a believable concept or the power to impose internal logic on the unbelievable. In 78 print-crowded pages there are fewer than a dozen technically excellent, although static, soft pencil cartoons. Fantasy overload. Lillian N. Gerhardt, "School Library Journal"
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 78 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday Books for Young Readers; 1st edition (April 2, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385230508
• ISBN-13: 978-0385230506
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,703,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thouroughly delightful!, August 6, 2005

By 

Nanci "Book Dragon" (Tri-Cities, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brave Little Toaster, The (Hardcover)

I found this book thouroughly delightful, and am hoping it is an introduction for me of a thouroughly delightful writer. I enjoyed every moment of the story, just enough tension, just enough truths (without sermonizing or platitudes), just the right descriptions (a poet, of course). Children should thouroughly enjoy this book, and it would be a wonderful read aloud story. My copy is in the Fantasy Annual IV, edited by Terry Carr (Timescape Books,1981). If you just want a tale that is lighthearted and not too childish for an adult to read, this is a lovely vacation book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute, but nowhere near as good as the movie, July 2, 2010

By 

Lauren "Marshmallow" (NS, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brave Little Toaster, The (Hardcover)

I've seen the movie, and I really love it. I don't really feel the same about the book. It's very different. Maybe if I had read the book first, I would think that the movie is too different, and not like it much... however, it is still a nice book, and without it, there would be no movie.

One thing I liked a lot in the book was the flower scene. Again, done differently than the movie, but still good and the flower's way of talking in rhymes was fun to read. I also love the poem at the beginning.

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the movie, May 1, 2001

By 

Dark Helmet (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brave Little Toaster, The (Hardcover)

Yes, this is one of the rare cases where the movie based on the book is better than the book itself. I felt that in an effort to make the characters more 'appliance-like' the author totally eschewed any characterization. The characters are rather flat and boring, with almost no individual personalities. They do not even have names, rather going by 'the toaster' 'the lamp' 'the blanket' ect. While most of the plot points are the same, the ending is vastly different than the movie's, and almost an anticlimax. The fact that you can buy the movie at almost any video store and the book is out of print IMHO speaks volumes. I gave the movie 4 stars. The book barely makes two.