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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pickle little, talk-a-little, July 16, 2009
In the past, it was easy to figure out what children's books fit where. Thirty-two pages that are 11 X 8 inches? Picture books. Thirty-two chapters of smallish print? Older middle-grade fiction. See? Piece o' cake. Then graphic novels had to come in and throw the whole system in the blender. At first it was easy to catalog them. You have comic book panels and speech balloons? In the new Graphic Novel section of the library you go. Then "Captain Underpants" came along and ruined everything. Wait . . you have speech balloons and long passages of text? Images and words mixing it up willy-nilly with nary a by-your-leave? Impossible! Inconceivable! But there it was. The result? Meet "Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom". The first in a series, Frankie's books are the natural successor to "Captain Underpants", stirring together pictures and words in a raucous melding that's bound to entrance reluctant readers, but still be enough fun to lure in hardcore comic book fans. Expertly penned with a wry sense of humor entirely its own, Frankie's a welcome addition to a difficult to define category.
It's the worst of all possible worlds. A beautiful day, video games to be played, and what does Franklin Lorenzo Piccolini (a.k.a. Frankie Pickle)'s mom tell him to do? Clean his room. Fortunately Frankie has a wild enough imagination to get him through anything. One gigantic robot fight later and his room isn't the least bit clean. In fact, it's worse! But instead of punishing him, Frankie's mom strikes a deal. He doesn't have to clean up his room, but whatever the consequences are, he'll have to deal with them himself. Frankie agrees readily, but soon the delights of filth turn out to have problems enough of their own.
When it comes down to the writing and the art, they both work but I'm probably more a fan of the latter than the former. Not that the plotting has anything wrong with it. Wight includes plenty of details that I've not seen done in a children's book before. While everything from "Calvin & Hobbes" to "Harold and the Purple Crayon" has used the motif of bringing a child's imagination to life, there are some ideas in here that are wholly Wight. For example, at one point Frankie falls through a veritable ocean of his own stuff. In doing so he is able to see all the stuff he might own in the past, present, and future. Other things I liked, a mock version of Dora the Explorer as the French Avril the Traveler ("Bonjour, mes amis!"). The rat sidekick in the beret is a nice touch. Or the robot with the catchphrase "It's Hammerin' Time". A pity it's not wearing Hammer Pants as well. Finally, any book that shows a clean room and then calls it "a museum of awesome" has my love.
Still, it's Wight's art that's the real draw. There's a clean-lined, almost angular style to it. Wight takes the time to shake up the panels, angles, and fonts when needs be. I'm also going to assume that it's not easy to constantly have to figure out where the written text, as opposed to the panel text, goes on a given page. In a comic book an artist has to be constantly aware of where the speech balloons and narrative appear. But at least the characters aren't constantly peeking out from behind a paragraph, or twisting to avoid a run-on sentence. On each page Wight has to constantly keep in mind where image gives way to text or text bows in the face of image. He makes it look easy, and it's not. There's some sophisticated work going on behind the scenes here.
Let's now talk about Frankie's mom. For reasons entirely of my own, Frankie's mom became my favorite character in the book (sorry, Argyle). Here's my reasoning on this. At one point in the novel Frankie pretends that he is defending the city against a malicious giant robot attack. Grateful Mayor Mom then enters the room and is wearing the greatest outfit of all time. It's kind of tiny, so you may miss it, but essentially she's decked out in a top hat, mayoral sash, and fishnet stockings. Between the grandmother in the "Magic Trixie" books sporting open toed leopard print boots and these stockings, children's literary fare is getting its share of eccentric outfitting. I have other reasons for enjoying the presence of Frankie's mom besides her son's strange interpretations of mayoral fashion, though. To look at her, Mrs. Piccolini is every bit the 1950s housewife, from her neat bob to her Capri pants. However, if you happen to take a close look at the family dynamics at work here, you'll see that it's actually Frankie's dad who does the cooking in the household. Woot!
I doubt not that in some libraries "Frankie Pickle" is going to get seriously confused with "Magic Pickle" (another great graphic novel series, only that one actually stars a real pickle). However, for those library systems in the know "Frankie Pickle" is going to find its fan base without any difficulty or confusion. For those kids in need of a transitional book between comics and novels, Wight provides. A good early chapter book, and fun to boot. Boys, girls, and small white well-read dogs will all be able to enjoy Frankie's adventure and hope that the future yields more. Real good.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Hybrid for Passionate and Reluctant Readers, June 12, 2009
I nearly didn't get to review Eric Wight's Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom. When it arrived in the mail, my son, a voracious reader of both chapter books and comics, pounced on it, read it from cover to cover immediately and then refused to hand it over. He wanted to take it to school; he wanted to read it again; he wanted to have it on his shelf in his room. He kept relating parts of it, repeating bits of dialogue. And he put the next installment in the Frankie Pickle series--Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000--on his Christmas list. (I do discourage Christmas lists in June, but he's unstoppable. He also expects Santa to produce a super sonic car and a mind-operated Wii controller, so a book not due out until February is the most realistc item on his list.)
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom is a hybrid, part comic book, part chapter book. Frankie has one of those "active" imaginations, and when he finds himself playing the role of an Indiana Jones style adventurer or a city-protecting superhero--always accompanied by his sidekick, Argyle the Westie Terrier--his adventures are related in comic book form. When he's Frankie Piccolini, a regular kid dealing with a regular kid's problems (an obnoxiously sporty older sister, a needy baby sister, and a fantastically messy room) the story is related in chapter book prose.
The boy (or girl) who slips easily into daydream fantasies is classic material for children's literature, and similar techniques have been used in both film and literature. What's surprising here is how well the hybrid form works to relate the inner workings of Frankie's mind. Despite bouncing between comic s and prose, fantasy and reality, the story progresses seamlessly. The prose in the chapter book portions is punchy, comedic and fastmoving. And the illustrations bleed out of the comics to invade the prose chapters. At the same time, elements from reality slip into Frankie's comic book fantasies, and all the moving parts mesh together around Frankie's one central problem.
Frankie Pickle is also a wonderful tribute to both contemporary graphic novels and classic comic books. The drawings, with simple, bold figures, are nonetheless cinematically framed, with establishing shots, point-of-view frames and evoctive camera angles, giving the art in Frankie Pickle a certain sophistication. At the same time Frankie Pickle, with its fast pace and goofy puns, reminds me of the classic comics from my childhood . It even incorporates "extra features" including a two page tutorial on how to draw Frankie and Argyle and a four page Franke Pickle bonus comic.
Let's not forget to mention how attractive Frankie Pickle may look to educators eager to convert new readers. For my son, who loves reading, Frankie Pickle was simply an extra delectable treat. But it's comic book elements could be a big draw for reluctant readers as well, perhaps providing just the ticket to the marvelously rich and delightful world of literature.
Originally posted at Critique de Mr Chompchomp
mrchompchomp.blogspot.com
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Makes reading fun., May 8, 2009
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom
Frankie Pickle leads a life of unending adventure and excitement. He's a daring archeologist, a heroic superhero, a brilliant surgeon, and more. At least, that's what his life is like in his imagination. In real life, Frankie's mom won't stop bugging him to clean up his room. Until one day, she tells him that he never has to clean his room again ... as long as he's prepared for the consequences. Now Frankie is on Cloud Swine. He can make as big a mess in his room as he wants, and soon he's not bothering with clean clothes or even bathing. But when the chaos in his room spirals out of control, can even the heroic Frankie Pickle find a way to stop it?
Closet of Doom is presented in a unique fashion, as a chapter book integrated with a graphic novel, and the story switches back and forth seamlessly between the two formats. This unusual structure can serve three functions for young readers. The first is to introduce early readers to comic books. This is not as simple a task as it sounds, since storytelling through sequential art has its own conventions (for example, how emotions like surprise are shown) and these are not always intuitively obvious to new readers. Second, the graphic novel portions can serve as a "bridge" between text chapters, allowing children who have not yet mastered reading to follow part of the plot assisted by the context of visual storytelling. Finally, this same process can work in reverse, enticing a child who may be comfortable with comic books to begin to tackle the greater developmental challenge of reading chapter books.
The story of Closet of Doom may seem simplistic, but its message is far from trivial. Learning to keep one's living space clean and ordered, with "a place for everything and everything in its place", can be especially challenging for young children. This is made harder by the fact that so few adults have learned this same lesson, and that many of us were raised by children of the Depression who never threw anything away. Learning to deal with all of your "stuff" is an essential coping skill for modern life but also one that most parents are ill-equipped to teach. And while lessons like these are very important for young people to learn, they are also the same lessons that they are the most resistant to learning when being lectured at by adults. Closet of Doom harnesses the power of storytelling to immerse children in an enjoyable tale where they can figure out this lesson for themselves.
Frankie's deal with his mom is the center of this story, but his dad features prominently in the book as well. Frankie's dad is man of many talents who can repair a car or an action figure, but who can also whip up a batch of waffles or freshly-baked cookies. It's nice to see a dad who is not a stereotype - in either direction - and being capable of taking on any role around the house is a necessity for many real-life dads in single dad or two dad households. Closet of Doom is a book that is fun and educational for kids, helpful for emerging readers, and good for dads, too.
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