Lost And Found [Hardcover]

Mark Teague (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

When Wendell, Floyd, and Mona search through the lost-and-found bin, they are sucked into a deep cave filled with all kinds of lost items, including mummies and dinosaur bones. Will they ever find Mona's lucky hat and make it safely back to school? Full color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The hapless Wendell and Floyd from The Secret Shortcut are in trouble once again (oddly, their teacher finds them suspect when they miss their math test due to an alleged giant squid in the bathroom). As they wait outside the principal's office, they're pulled into yet another adventure. In pursuit of classmate Mona Tudburn, who is searching for her missing "lucky hat," they tumble into the Lost and Found box. The bottomless container yields lots of surprises; caverns and passageways full of stray items (a bowling pin, a suit of armor) give way to a room full of hats, where they each find a lucky one of their own. Indeed, by story's end it does seem that their fortunes may finally be changing. Teague's latest sly take on the wild flights of childhood fancy is as entertaining as always, and he doles out his deadpan artistic style with a wink?from the permanently surprised expressions fixed on the boys' faces to such clever asides as a sign for "Atlantis" tucked into a corner of one of the caverns. Shifts in color and perspective signal the scene changes from the ordinary to the fantastical; drab tones fill in the school's upright walls and solid doors, while floral shades define the world of the Lost and Found box, an Oz-like destination with columns and archways that loom and lean, as though viewed through a fish-eye lens. Readers will be delighted to find that the ending leaves the door wide open to further escapades. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 3-Wendell and Floyd show Mona, the new girl in school, the Lost and Found, hoping to help her find her lucky hat. When she disappears into the large box, the boys follow her and together they explore an underground world filled with misplaced objects ranging from baby dolls to pirate treasures. As they wander, they note several times that "you can't get lost in the Lost and Found." When they finally reach the hat room, Mona realizes that the missing item was in her purse all along. The boys each pick out a lucky hat for themselves, and the children return to school. Though the idea of a mysterious world of Lost and Found is intriguing, this book has less humor and excitement than readers have come to expect from Teague. His vivid acrylic paintings fill the pages with color, but the comic possibilities are never fully explored. The framework of the story is similar to The Secret Shortcut (Scholastic, 1996), which also features Wendell and Floyd, but the adventure here is less satisfying. There are assorted odd images scattered throughout the pages, but the scenes aren't as vivid and surprising, and the story lacks the crispness of the earlier title. Teague's eye-catching illustrations and his knack for capturing the imaginative possibilities of childhood are still engaging enough, but it is hard not to wish that Wendell and Floyd's next adventure will be a bit more lively.
Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1st edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590846191
• ISBN-13: 978-0590846196
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,749,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mark Teague has another winner!, April 21, 2000

By 

Adele (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost And Found (Hardcover)

Whenever I read this story to children in grades K-4, I always get a great response. I'm a children's librarian and this book is one I always read to classes that visit my library or whenever I am asked to visit a school and read to the children. The children love the story and can easily recognize the items that got "lost" as their own. Mark Teague can really tell a story that children can relate to. The illustrations are wonderful because they are full of details that children easily recognize, like the mummy case and viking ship. Watch for the squid that gets Wendell and Floyd in trouble in the beginning of the story. The children also liked Teague's other books, Pigsty and One Halloween Night.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's easy to get lost in this Lost and Found!, May 9, 2001

By 

Volkert Volkersz (Snohomish, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost And Found (Hardcover)

"You can't get lost in the Lost and Found," Mona and Wendell told him [Floyd], but they no longer sounded so sure (from "The Lost and Found," by Mark Teague).

I just read "The Lost and Found" to a group of 3rd and 4th graders who selected it from a batch of new books we just added to our elementary school library. They sat totally engaged in this fantastic journey into the world at the bottom of a school lost and found.

Since our school lost and found is located just outside our library, I often see children--and parents--lost in a fantasy world as they peruse all the missing items in there. In many ways, I was reminded of the dress-up box my parents had when I was a child. You could just pick up a hat, gloves or an old shirt and be mentally transported to another place or time. Mark Teague builds very effectively on this imaginative tendency in children.

Our 3rd and 4th graders had a brief discussion on the concepts of fiction or non-fiction, and realistic or fantasy, at the conclusion of this story. I'm sure your children will enjoy this as much as our group did. Just don't get lost in the lost and found!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost as Teague Terrific as Pigsty, December 16, 1999

By 

J. Jones (Denver, Colorado USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost And Found (Hardcover)

My son Grant just loved Pigsty and The Secret Shortcut. So we purchased Mark Teague's The Lost and Found. The illustrations are just great and having Wendell and Floyd, whom we first read about in Teague's Secret Short Cut, as the main characters made him feel right at home in The Lost and Found. He reminded me that his school's lost and found resembles the one in the book. We really enjoyed the imaginative story. Great read for kids old enough to understand the concept of a Lost and Found. Yet not quite as good as Pigsty or The Secret Shortcut.