Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-This-World Moon Pie Adventure

by Tony DiTerlizzi, Tony DiTerlizzi (Illustrator)

Overview

How far would you go to get your favorite snack?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689822155
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	04/01/2000
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	897,385
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD540L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

#1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi has been creating children’s books for over twenty years. From fanciful picture books like The Spider & the Fly to chapter book series like the Search for WondLa, DiTerlizzi imbues his stories with a rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle grade series the Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold 20 million copies, been adapted into a feature film, and been translated in over thirty countries. The Norman Rockwell Museum’s exhibition “Never Abandon Imagination” featured artwork from the beginning of DiTerlizzi’s career as a contributing artist for Dungeons & Dragons and broke attendance records. He has been featured in Time magazine and USA TODAY and on CNN, PBS, NPR, the BBC, and the Today show.

#1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi has been creating children’s books for over twenty years. From fanciful picture books like The Spider & the Fly to chapter book series like the Search for WondLa, DiTerlizzi imbues his stories with a rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle grade series the Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold 20 million copies, been adapted into a feature film, and been translated in over thirty countries. The Norman Rockwell Museum’s exhibition “Never Abandon Imagination” featured artwork from the beginning of DiTerlizzi’s career as a contributing artist for Dungeons & Dragons and broke attendance records. He has been featured in Time magazine and USA TODAY and on CNN, PBS, NPR, the BBC, and the Today show.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews A high-flying, lip-smacking adventure.

From the Publisher

This delightful romp follows red-haired, freckle-faced, goggle-wearing Jimmy Zangwow, budding inventor and adventurer, on a passionate search for his favorite treat, which his mother forbids him to eat before dinner. DiTerlizzi gets the details just right in his debut book. Framed in a white border, the opening illustrations evoke advertisements from the '50s, complete with Jimmy's mother standing on the checkered linoleum kitchen floor in dress, apron and bedroom slippers, fixing dinner, glass milk bottles on the counter beside her. No sooner does the disgruntled Jimmy board his "junk jumbilee jalopy" and say "I wish I could go to the moon and get my own Moon Pies" than the machine rockets off the ground. The illustrations then become full-spread chronicles of the hero's travels (various continents are labeled below, and the equator is clearly visible). First he visits Mr. Moon (a crescent-shaped fellow depicted as a giant visage, sporting spectacles, a star-spangled nightcap and green crater-capped pajamas) and acquires 1,000 Moon Pies; next the Milky Way in search of milk; then Mars, where he encounters Mars Men and the fearsome Grimble Grinder. Jimmy discovers his love of Moon Pies is universal; he makes a number of extraterrestrial friends and saves the day by giving away every one of his treats. His friends then combine their efforts to send him back just in time for dinner and that special dessert. Children will see the galaxy in a whole new light after this wild flight. Ages 5-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A lad's quest for a classic snack takes him to distant corners of the universe in this retro-flavored, roller coaster picture book debut. When Mom rejects his plea for a moon pie, Jimmy soars off into space in his homemade race car/rocket ship, taking on a thousand moon pies from the Man in the Moon, dipping gallons of milk from the Milky Way, then reluctantly but gamely sharing it all, after a crash landing, with 999 hungry Martians and a peckish monster with a loudly rumbling tummy. In red cowboy boots and aviator goggles, sporting freckles and a gap toothed grin, Jimmy looks like a living Howdy Doody, with his jalopy, made from crates and buggy wheels, the Martians, who look like tops with bright blue heads, and other features of his elaborately detailed surroundings of like vintage. In the end, Martians and monster repay Jimmy's generosity by constructing a moon pie wrapper balloon that floats him home in time for dinner (Brussels-sprout-noodle-bean casserole) and, (yes!) guess what for dessert. DiTerlizzi pays visual homage to a gallery of illustrators from Arthur Rackham to Mercer Mayer, and gives his intrepid protagonist an infectious look of wide-eyed excitement. Tempt fans of David Wiesner's Sector 7 (1999) and William Joyce's books with this high-flying, lip-smacking adventure. (Picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews