From Publishers Weekly
Working as a team, David Kamish and his seven-year-old son Daniel imagine a bad dream come to life. Awakened by "a growling in his melon" ("melon" appears three times as a synonym for "head"), a boy named Dan goes to his notebook and sketches a tyrannosaur with a gaping mouth and rolling eyes. He plans to erase the picture and, with it, his fright. But the "scary nightmare Beastie" morphs into a real gray-and-purple-speckled monster that sneezes out a spattery-green "Boogieman." Dan pursues these terrors with his "Mighty Pencil," drawing a fire engine and squirting them into submission with a hose. Armed with the magic pencil (which, next to Harold's purple crayon, seems a pedestrian picture-book device), Dan never seems to be in danger. In any event, the unsuspenseful plot is secondary to the illustration process. The seven-year-old contributes the initial drawings in these collaged spreads; the father supplies the rest. Daniel Kamish's wildly awkward line-drawings are recognizable as child's art, with their snaggly teeth, sticks for limbs and imprecise circles for heads and feet. David Kamish adds crayon textures and airbrush-slick colors that stay neatly within the boundaries; various pictures allude to Van Gogh's Starry Night, Munch's The Scream, etc. The results are dubious at best?a chaotic-looking book that smacks of self-consciousness, its alleged freshness compromised by adults' heavy hands. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-Take an off-the-wall, wild ride in this story with a new twist on an old theme. Dan's nightmares come to life, and the boy overcomes his fear by drawing a six-legged dog and a fire truck to chase them down. The book is a bit reminiscent of Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon (HarperCollins, 1955) but on a psychedelic level. With a text filled with roaring, growling, and screeching, this title will make an enjoyable read-aloud. The full-color illustrations are a combination of crayon, pencil, acrylics, and airbrush and lend a trendy, modern, space-age flair. The artwork appears at first to be simple and childlike, but subconscious elements and borrowing from artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh are evident. A clever reminder to children that they have the power to overcome their nightmares, even if one of them is a Boogieman that was sneezed out of a Beastie's nose.
Christie J. Flynn, University of Texas of the Permian Basin, OdessaCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
