From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3. An original and entertaining story with a traditional fairy-tale flavor. Even before the title page, readers encounter a young lad beholding a rather unusual sight: a very big pink slipper with a bright yellow bow that serves as a tree-house mail box. By the second page of illustration, the boy steps into the shoe, takes the letters in hand, and is hauled up into a mango tree. As the boldly colored paintings indicate, the recipient of the letters is indeed larger than life, a lady giant named Mangaboom who stands 19-feet tall and is very congenial. The two immediately strike up a friendship and plunge into the task at hand?finding a suitable suitor for Mangaboom. Neither Tito nor Fito nor Hernando-Fernando, giant suitors presented at her aunt's afternoon tea, will do. Fortunately, Grizwaldo, a love-letter writing giant who lives in a jacaranda tree, turns out to be the love of her life, and they live happily ever after. Mangaboom is a mix of female determination and femininity, strong enough to choose the man of her dreams while wearing a dress adorned with lace and flowers. The large, lush, watercolor-and-gouache paintings are filled with textures and hues that evoke the tropical setting. Written in short paragraphs with lots of dialogue, this tale will make an amusing read-aloud.?Susan Pine, New York Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ages 5^-9. Far from the macho action of Jack the Giantkiller, this gorgeously illustrated romance is about a boy named Daniel who climbs to the top of a huge mango tree and finds a friendly, gorgeous Latina lady giant named Mangaboom, who is 19 feet tall and weighs more than 600 pounds. She likes to climb trees and skinny-dip and turn cartwheels on the beach. She takes Daniel to tea with her auntie, who wants Mangaboom to meet three eligible suitors; but they believe a woman should do what she's told and stay in the house, and Mangaboom will have none of that. "Not in
my house," she roars. Kids will enjoy the parody of fairy tale traditions ("My, what a nice time we have had . . . Fee fi fo, hello") and the exuberance of Lobel's watercolor and gouache pictures. Mangaboom is so big and beautiful she is bursting out of the large-size pages with her purple high-heeled shoes, her thick red hair, her flowing flowered dress, and her spectacles. When she does find a man who loves her for herself, he looks a lot like an adult Daniel, and the final scene is an Edenic view of the beach.
Hazel Rochman
