APRIL 2019 - AudioFile
Actor Matthew Gray Gubler (“Criminal Minds”) brings his children’s story to the listener’s ear with exuberance. Imagine a creature with five crooked teeth, three hairs, and a big left foot who lives underground near a rain drain. He only comes above ground by moonlight disguised under a banana peel, furnishes his home with the dregs found in a garbage can, and fashions a friend from ABC candy bits. No one would possibly want to befriend this creature—right? Well . . . Emphasizing alliteration, using myriad voices ranging from falsetto to squeaky, and changing pace on a dime are all part of Gubler’s craft. As narrator, he is cheerfully distinctive. Things just might change at this year’s Pajama Jam Cotton Candy Pancake Parade. A.R. 2020 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
A Forbes Best Children's Book of the Year (so far)
"Kids will love the weird, mythical and strangely cute character of Rumple Buttercup. It’s entertaining for all ages." —Forbes
APRIL 2019 - AudioFile
Actor Matthew Gray Gubler (“Criminal Minds”) brings his children’s story to the listener’s ear with exuberance. Imagine a creature with five crooked teeth, three hairs, and a big left foot who lives underground near a rain drain. He only comes above ground by moonlight disguised under a banana peel, furnishes his home with the dregs found in a garbage can, and fashions a friend from ABC candy bits. No one would possibly want to befriend this creature—right? Well . . . Emphasizing alliteration, using myriad voices ranging from falsetto to squeaky, and changing pace on a dime are all part of Gubler’s craft. As narrator, he is cheerfully distinctive. Things just might change at this year’s Pajama Jam Cotton Candy Pancake Parade. A.R. 2020 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-01-15
A self-conscious sewer-dwelling monster learns that everyone is just as weird as he is.
Rumple Buttercup has "5 crooked teeth / 3 strands of hair / Green skin / And his left foot was slightly bigger than his right.… // He was weird." He's convinced that his appearance will scare people, so he lives in a sewer, listening to the conversations of passers-by and wishing he could participate. The only day he joins in the life of the community is during the Annual Pajama Jam Cotton Candy Pancake Parade, because he believes no one will notice him under his banana-peel disguise. But when he can't find a banana peel, he believes he'll have to miss out on the festivities until a young boy calls down the sewer drain asking about him. Turns out that he's been a beloved, eccentric community member all along, and when he emerges, he finds that everyone feels like a disheveled weirdo on the inside. A hybrid blend of picture book, chapter book, and surrealist comic, the story is sweet and tame despite the creepy strangeness of Rumple Buttercup. Unsettling but affectionate drawings carry the story, with crude but expressive sketches and subdued color. The overall message is obvious but well-meaning and could equally appeal to elementary school reluctant readers or adolescent misfits.
Not quite any one kind of book, this story will appeal to a variety of readers with a taste for the odd. (Fable. 6-14)
