Syndetic Solutions - [Book Review for 9781416912477]

Ivan the Terrier

by

Syndetic Solutions - [Book Review for 9781416912477]

Book Review

Publishers Weekly :

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Rambunctious readers will easily identify with Ivan, an energetic terrier who's sure to tickle their funny bones. With a dearth of words, a plethora of familiar storybook characters and a delicious pun in the title, Catalanotto (No Dessert Forever!) tells the story of a rowdy brown and white terrier who enters the action of the book in highly meta-fictional style. Once upon a time there were three billy goats named Gruff, the book begins, but at the turn of the page, Ivan appears, barking wildly and frightening the goats. The narrator shouts Ivan!... You're ruining the story! Catalanotto creates no visual distinctions between the fictional characters in the fairy tales and Ivan, but the text makes it clear that the puppy doesn't belong. The narrator doggedly tries to begin several different classic children's tales, but after each one-page opening, Ivan disrupts, shouting his only line: Arf! Arf! Arf! (He scatters the three pigs' bricks, sticks and straw, and he eats the gingerbread boy.) It's not until he stares significantly at the reader/narrator in a humorous close-up that the narrator gives up and begins, There once was a little dog named Ivan. To the reader's surprise, Ivan walks off the page and immediately curls up to sleep. Catalanotto's watercolors show Ivan chasing off each story's characters literally into the sunset, and the endearing puppy will make this picture book a read-aloud favorite. Ages 2-5. (Sept.)

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School Library Journal :

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PreS-Gr 1—A high-spirited terrier creates mayhem in the fairy-tale world as an unseen narrator tries to tell a series of bedtime stories. "Once upon a time there were three billy goats named Gruff," the narrator begins, but stops short when Ivan bursts onto the scene with an enthusiastic "Arf! Arf! Arf!" After chasing away the goats, he moves on to disrupt the lives of the three bears, the three little pigs, and the gingerbread boy. The noisy pup sneaks into each story, refusing to calm down despite the narrator's increasingly strident admonitions. At last, the storyteller gives up and in one final effort intones, "There once was a little dog named Ivan." But the terrier wanders away to fall asleep in his doggie bed, probably worn out from all of his mischief. The watercolor and gouache paintings add to the humor of this imaginative story, which is presented in large, readable type. Serene, light-filled pictures of the storybook figures with the approaching terrier in the background are followed by scenes of pandemonium in which the excitable pup joyously barks with all his might as the other characters flee. The startled reactions of the fairy-tale denizens and Ivan's expressive countenance will make readers chuckle and chortle with delight.—Linda L. Walkins, Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Brighton, MA

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Syndetic Solutions - [Book Review for 1416912479] Book Review
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Ivan the terrier's brown-and-white face fills up the front cover, but, inside, the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff is being told by an unseen narrator. The art shows three goats gamboling in green fields, but then Ivan appears in the frame. The reader interrupts the text: Hey, where did that dog come from? Is that Ivan? . . . Ivan! . . . You're ruining the story! So the reader starts a different story, The Three Bears, and into the two-page spread jumps Ivan. There's only one joke here, but Catalanotto milks every bit of humor from it in the watercolor-and-gouache artwork that mixes the soft-edged fairy-tale world with a heady realism in the form of the overactive canine, who winds up eating the gingerbread boy. In the end, the narrator gives up fairy tales and starts a story about a dog named Ivan. We see only Ivan's hind end, though, as he has moved out of view to catch a nap. It can be delightful when worlds collide. Cooper, Ilene.

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