3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sensational Pictures Amid A Madcap Story!, July 29, 2005
This review is from: Two For Stew (Hardcover)
Only the most talented authors and illustrators can successfully translate film genres into books for kids. Film noir is a recent favorite, but the styles and dialogues of early animated fairy tales and "Bowery Boy" films have also been emulated with mixed results. It's an alluring but tricky task, because the book must strike adults as reasonably authentic by retaining some of the original elements, while still appealing to the young--most of whom have no idea of the progenitor.
This book is an exceptionally well illustrated foray into 1930's screwball comedies. The setting and characters look like they come from that era, and the insouciant plot reminds one of the intelligent yet zany--hence "screwball"--comedies perfected decades ago. The book's closest model would be a Preston Sturges comedy (e.g., "The Lady Eve," "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," ) noted for clever dialogue, likeable characters, and improbable plots. The current book is all about our crimped-hair heroine's quest for a bowl of stew from the corner restaurant. That's the entire plot. However, authors Laura Numeroff ("If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"), Barry Saltzberg, and, especially, illustrator Salvatore Murdocca turn this thin storyline into a dazzling Broadway production. Even the details show originality and attention to characterization: The rhyming dialogue between the woman and the restaurant host, for example, are set in different fonts: The woman's font, much like the woman, is direct, slender, and tall; the host's is a solicitous and evasive italic. (Unfortunately, the font won't reproduce here.)
I'll bring you a menu,
In a minute or two.
No need to bother.
We came for the stew.
There is no more stew,
I'm sorry to say.
We do have some noodles,
Will that be okay?
No, thank you, kind sir,
We never touch noodles.
They're messy to eat,
And not fit for poodles.
This last rhyme shows a picture of the woman's enormously furry poodle slurping noodles and tossing them about the cafe. This must be the fantasy sequence of the movie/book, for the woman clearly replies that neither she nor her poodle would consume a noodle. As the woman and dog peruse the menu while the elusive stew arrives at someone else's table, a picture window reveals tall buildings swaying, like the energized objects in a Disney picture. In the book's second fantasy sequence, a two page spread (replicated on the cover of the book) shows a Busby Berkeley melange of singer and dancing waiters and the woman and poodle flying against a lit up sky, with a Gotham city skyline, a giant oven with stew pot, and an airplane (trailing behind it a banner proclaiming "WONDERFUL STEW") in the background. It's a satire, just as "42nd Street" parodied itself, and it's one of the most magical and imaginative pictures I've seen in a kid's book. Although a few of the pictures aren't quite as glorious, most of the illustrations display Murdocca's shimmering palette, especially his blues and golds. His colors look like saturated tints, and his shadings (e.g., the tablecloths, the awnings) are luminous and sophisticated.
As it happens, the chef can't make more stew; it's actually made by the mother of the cafe host (this is definitely a Jimmy Stewart role). Jean Arthur (she'd fit, or perhaps Hepburn) and Jimmy ride on his motorcycle to grandmother's, only to find that she's just driven off for bowling. With the poodle in the sidecar, the two inevitable young lovers hop on the cyle and follow grandma as somewhat more modern-looking pedestrians point the way. The time machine effect is one of the protagonists living in their own screwball comedy of dawning love, surrounded by obliging but otherwise naiive modern-day urbanites... This wonderfully original book meets and surpasses the challenge of its film-into-book premise.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Adorable, Madcap, and Sweet, August 20, 2011
This book is an early movie musical put to page as the leading lady and her poodle tangle with their earnest waiter for a bowl of creamy, dreamy stew. The illustrations are delightful and the sweet ending will make everyone but the most hard-hearted smile. My first grader and I both loved it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Two for Stew, a book made for two to curl up to., June 5, 2009
This review is from: Two For Stew (Hardcover)
This book is wonderful, after 6 years it is still my daughter's (now 9) favorite book. She checks it out from her school library so often I finally bought it for her and she now reads it to her little sister, the same way I read it to her, curled up on the couch.
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