From Publishers Weekly
Admirers of the Barraccas' The Adventures of Taxi Dog and Maxi, the Hero may be disappointed in the third adventure of the eponymous dog and Jim the taxi-driver. Although its predecessors feature the boldly stylized art of Mark Buehner, this volume introduces debut illustrator Ayers. Technically proficient, Ayers gamely mimics Buehner's vivid style--and invites an interesting game of find-the-cat by hiding subliminal felines in some spreads--but the new Maxi seems more like a slick replica than the real thing. This time around, New Yorkers Maxi and Jim meet a Hollywood producer: "You must come out west / To do a screen test-- / You could be our Doggie Bites star!" effuses the mogul to the mutt. Jim and Maxi point their Checker cab toward L.A., stopping in a Kansas cornfield and in Yellowstone Park before hitting the big time. The jaunty text, intense colors and realistic architectural detail will leave new readers justifiably impressed; others, however, may wish the authors had invented an all-new story line rather than rehashing their now-familiar motif. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1993 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-TV producer Lionel Leaf offers a cabbie's canine companion a starring role in the new Doggie Bites commercial, so it's off to Hollywood, zigzagging across the country in a Checker cab (a concept that will afford New Yorkers, at least, considerable amusement and disbelief). As in Maxi's two previous appearances, The Adventures of Taxi Dog (1990) and Maxi, the Hero (both Dial, 1991), the rhymed text makes entertaining reading, whether silently or aloud, and although the illustrations are done by a different artist, they have the same look-clean-edged, well-lit figures in uncluttered scenes, bright colors, and plenty of benign smiles all around. A well-worked idea, but less frenzied than some recent treatments: Maira Kalman's Max in Hollywood, Baby (Viking, 1992) or Hudson Talbott's Going Hollywood! (Crown, 1989), for instance.
John Peters, New York Public LibraryCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
