A Night Brigade of tiny creatures offer an alternate take on the Tooth Fairy scenario. PW said, "A shadowy palette and unique perspectives challenge kids to decipher a fun visual mystery." Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2. The Night Brigade, consisting of a Captain, Deputy, Navigator, Mechanic, Muscle, Timekeeper, and the new kid, are off on a top-secret mission that is revealed at the end as snatching a tooth from under a child's pillow. (A coin is left in its place.) The story is told by the new kid, who details each step of the journey, frequently lamenting his status, "The new kid has to do all the dangerous work." The text is peppered with jargon such as "zip cable" and "Slumber Zone" and indications of difficulty and danger ("Make a mistake in the Zone, and you're squashed"), all presented with much underlining and many exclamation points. Ultimately, though, the text is less than engaging because it talks at readers rather than to them. The cartoon illustrations capture the atmosphere of night and there are interesting details such as the way the Night Brigade assembles and reassembles various gears and wheels to make an array of vehicles and devices, but the layout is too busy. Inset close-ups of the action clutter the pages and do not form a visually integrated design. Unusual perspectives often create extreme visual reactions that the tone of the text does not quite match. For example, the child's bedroom, seen at a diagonal angle from above, gives an all-too-real stomach-lurching feeling of unstableness and unease. The ending suffers from the same sense of forced jocularity and mystery as the rest of the story. A failed mission.?Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
