Down The Dragon's Tongue - Softcover

Mr. Prospero is a staid businessman who loves the well-ordered world at his office. His suits are always pressed, his tie is always neatly knotted, his hair is always in place, and he always accomplishes his goals in the tidy, well-organized office in which he works. But when Mr. Prospero arrives home where his wife and his twins Harry and Miranda are waiting for him, things are, well, slightly less well-ordered than at work. The children excitedly demand that their dad take them to the playground to play on the beautiful long, red slide shaped like a dragon's tongue. The children assure Daddy that he won't get messy and dirty just watching them go down the slide and they convince him to take them. At the playground, Harry and Miranda beg their father to slide down with them. "We need a father sliding with us. And a dog!" Miranda says happily, knowing her father won't say no to his children. Despite his misgivings and the threat of dirt on his clothes, Mr. Prospero agrees to slide down once. And then slides down once more, and again and again and again. In fact, when Harry and Miranda are tired and want to go home, Mr. Prospero is still climbing the steps to the top of the slide, sliding down, and then starting the process all over. By now, Mr. Prospero has lost his shoes, his shirt has come untucked, his tie is awry, and his hair is mussed. But he's supremely happy. Children will delight in seeing a buttoned-down daddy loosen up and give in to the pleasure of doing something just because it's fun. Although this world seems straight out of the 1950s in its homogeneity (all the characters are white and most of the girls and women wear dresses and are well-groomed), the lack of any sort of diversity will be more problematical for adults than for the children who will wholeheartedly love the concept. Warm illustrations rendered in acrylics and painted in a deliberately childlike style ably convey the children's enthusiasm and their father's initial ambivalence before he gives in to the exhilaration of sliding down the slide. There is too much empty white background in the design of the book, but this is a minor criticism. An enormously fun and joyous book that works equally well as a group read-aloud or one-on-one. (Picture book. 3-7) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Mahy and MacCarthy (previously paired for 17 Kings and 42 Elephants) team up for this story of a buttoned-down businessman who literally kicks off his shoes at his children's urging. Mr. Prospero informs twins Miranda and Harry that "fathers wearing white shirts, shiny shoes, and hand-painted silk ties that look like fruit salad" do not ride down huge slides at the park. But after some initial fears, Mr. Prospero discovers he can "Whooosh!" with the best of them, and the twins have a hard time getting him to go home. Mahy's language is offbeat, verbally dexterous and chock-full of repeated metaphors and accumulating jokes. The father's clothes mirror his gradual awakening in both art and text as he loses his buttons and nearly eats his fruit salad tie. MacCarthy's acrylic paintings focus on action and character, but at times seem out of sync with the text. Mahy frequently hints at magic (naming the father Prospero, invoking images of a city that lies "out beyond like a land in a dream" and glows "like a fairyland in the last rays of sunlight"), but MacCarthy largely ignores these metaphors, so that the somewhat flat ending lacks a dreamy punch. Nonetheless, this is still a charmer. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.