Zoomer

by Ned Young, Ned Young (Illustrator)

Overview

Hooper and Cooper are ready, but where's Zoomer?

Zoomer is waaaaay too busy for school today. Although his dad begs him to get ready, how can Zoomer make time for school with such a full schedule? He has to blow the world's biggest bubble, build a brontosaurus out of sand, launch a rocket ship—and that's just the beginning!

Ned Young paints Zoomer's world with fun, detailed illustrations that showcase the silly side of everyday life. Kids and their parents will laugh out loud at the surprise ending that proves Zoomer knows best after all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061700880
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/30/2010
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	956,702
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Ned Young is the author and illustrator of Zoomer and Zoomer's Summer Snowstorm. He is a self-taught painter and illustrator whose playful sense of humor appears on a variety of merchandise, including prints, calendars, puzzles, mugs, and greeting cards.

Ned Young is the author and illustrator of Zoomer and Zoomer's Summer Snowstorm. He is a self-taught painter and illustrator whose playful sense of humor appears on a variety of merchandise, including prints, calendars, puzzles, mugs, and greeting cards.

Editorial Reviews

Young's debut picture book features a lively puppy who insists he's “way too busy” to get ready for school, much to the frustration of his father (mom's away) and brothers. Although the text provides a routine description of ordinary family life, Young inserts fanciful visual illustrations of birds bowling in the treetops and pelicans appearing out of nowhere, making it clear that Zoomer's world is one in which just about anything can happen. Zoomer shows off his artistic talents by sculpting first an ornate dog food castle, then an enormous brontosaurus in the sandbox. Even more surreal, he sails a pirate ship on a sea created by a garden hose, transforms the sofa into an elephant, and crashes his spaceship through the roof of the house. Young's exuberant illustrations are the clear focal point—Zoomer's siblings and father are flat characters with generic dialogue (“I think that kid needs a major time-out,” complains one). Even the exclamation points are overdone as Zoomer gets the last laugh, reminding his family that he doesn't have to go to school because “TODAY IS... SATURDAY!!!!” Ages 3–7. (May)

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 4—It's time for dog brothers Cooper, Hooper, and Zoomer to get ready for school, but Zoomer doesn't intend to go today. He's busy doing a variety of ridiculous things: blowing the world's largest bubble, making a giant sand brontosaurus, building a dog-food castle, and more. Dad does his best to corral Zoomer and his brothers through their morning routine, but in the end, the pup is right when he claims that he is staying home. It turns out to be Saturday. Bright, fun illustrations detailing Zoomer's ambitious undertakings are the highlight of the book. A choppy story line and a narrative that lacks transitions between one event and the next create an overall feeling of disconnect, causing this attempt at humorous exaggeration to be more confusing than funny.—Amanda Moss Struckmeyer, Middleton Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

Mom's away, but twins Hooper and Cooper diligently get ready for school anyway; Zoomer, however, energetically avoids the task despite his ineffectual dad's best efforts. This family of dogs lives in a large Victorian house, the puppies attend school and they behave in mostly human fashion. Zoomer engages in imaginative play that gradually becomes more real, moving from wearing a superhero costume to sailing a pirate ship to flying a rocket with two pelican pals. It's not quite clear where Zoomer is getting these superpowers or why, but he's having lots of fun while his tattling, better-behaved brothers proceed in orderly fashion. Though the plot is downright silly, the storytelling is flat and it's sometimes hard to distinguish among the four dogs, Zoomer has a certain zest about him. Young's busy, bright paintings in his first picture book show that he can illustrate wildly improbable animal antics in a humorous and more-or-less believable way. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews