And they’re funny, some of the best early readers you can hand a child learning to read on his or her own.
As a Kirkus reviewer for the first title pointed out, these are James Marshall-esque in style, more character-driven than plot-driven. In each title, child readers are introduced to the landmarks famous to each city he visits, Dodsworth all the while serving as the duck’s very funny straight man. Dodsworth is a committed traveler, taking us on journeys all over the globe. He’s the same mouse who appeared in 2007’s The Pink Refrigerator-though in this series he is joined by a dry-witted duck-which was launched in 2007 with Dodsworth in New York. Dodsworth, pictured here, is the star of Egan’s beginning reader series. I took the chance to invite Egan over for a cyber-breakfast, once I saw he had a new Dodsworth title out. “Offbeat,” as I wrote last week, is used often to describe his humor, and in the picture book world, offbeat is refreshing. So far, in the over ten picture book titles he’s brought readers, he’s treated us to an understated, low-key humor. But I will summarize here again: He’s quite droll-in both his writing and cartoon illustrations-and I happen to like a good Droll. Today he visits for a 7-Imp cyber-breakfast to showcase some art and tell us a bit more about his work. I already covered last week at my Kirkus column why I like Egan’s books so much. We need some laughter.” Thus begins the animals’ secret plan to “make the farm more fun.” Until, that is, one night when Edna, the cow, declares that “it’s okay to be serious, but not all the time. (He kinda does have a point there, doesn’t he?) And, because he owns the farm, his farm animals are all extremely serious, too. “He wasn’t a sad fellow,” Egan writes, “just very serious.” He subscribes to the notion that there’s nothing funny about corn, not to mention there is no humor in tomatoes. He’s from Egan’s 2003 title, Serious Farm. That’s Farmer Fred, one of my favorite picture book protagonists. Nope, that’s not author/illustrator Tim Egan, though I promise he’s pictured below in the interview.
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