Clowns on Vacation [Hardcover]

Nina Laden (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

When clowns go on vacation, the whole world is a circus.

When the circus is over,
After the standing ovation,
What do clowns do
When they go on vacation?

They make us laugh until our sides ache, but these hardworking clowns just need a break. Now that the Big Top is folded and their bags are all packed, the Clownmans are taking a rest from their act. Whether they're climbing a mountain or digging for treasure, they always seem to have a nose for adventure. Wherever they go, whatever they do, they are always clowns through and through.

Nina Laden skillfully and seamlessly combines photomontage with vibrant gouache paintings to create a picture book chock-full of verbal and visual humor that will delight audiences of all ages.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This comical yet awkwardly realized volume imagines how four circus clowns, their elephant and their dog pass their downtime, including forays to beach and desert destinations. Each spread poses queries that demand a close look at the images, which are a muddle of intense colors and cutout photos. One page pictures a five-star resort next to a brick tenement with an Always Vacant sign: Along the way, Where do they stay? In a fancy hotel Or a bad one that smells? The answer is neither, as it turns out. Four pairs of floppy shoes rest outside a patched Little Top tent, suggesting that the clowns bring their own accommodations. Laden's (Bad Dog) jokes are in the details. At the shore, a girl clown buries the elephant in the sand while her brother digs for seashells and unearths a cell phone. Their father sips lemonade from a water-cooler while their mother covers her shell-white face with clown tan (they never remove their red noses or makeup). Before returning home, the group finds the treasure of Billy the Kidder, drops by Las Vegas, and gets stuck in traffic when a glue truck tips over. Laden's book is chockablock with tepid sight gags, but her uneven rhymes and the garish colors and clutter of some of the collages are off-putting. Clowns are known for organized chaos, and this book needs better choreography. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1-Readers follow a clown family-complete with dog and elephant-on hiatus as they flit from locale to locale and experience the sights in a uniquely antic fashion. The clowns are fired from cannons for air travel, have a choice of "Clown White" or "Clown Tan" for sunscreen, and sleep in a tent called "The Little Top." By juxtaposing typical tourist experiences (getting lost, buying souvenirs, sending postcards, and taking photos) with exaggerated interpretations, Laden gives free rein to visual humor both broad and subtle. Travel-savvy adults, however, may catch more of the manic humor than children. The full-page, double-spread illustrations done in photomontage and gouache are bright but so busy that readers may find it hard to follow the action. Although the cartoon style lends itself to the circus theme, the rigidity of the facial makeup results in an eerie sameness to most of the clowns' faces. In places, the rhyme is forced and, by trying to incorporate a wide range of tourist clich s, the text becomes overlong and drags, slowing the book's pace. Like an acrobat just missing the flying trapeze, this offering has a lot of flash and dazzle, but ultimately falls flat.
Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha's Public Library, WI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers; First Edition, 1st Printing edition (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802787800
• ISBN-13: 978-0802787804
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,354,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nina Laden grew up in the New York City area. She now lives in an old farmhouse in Seattle, which she renovated with her husband. She is the author and illustrator of many books for children.