Danny in the Toybox - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 1-- An angry Danny holes up in his toybox. ``I'm never coming out for the rest of my life. Never, never, never, so there!'' One by one, his sister, dog, mother, father, ``doctor'' (sister with stethoscope), and ``fire brigade'' (grandparents and sister thinly disguised in makeshift uniforms) appear. They use bribes, sternness, appeals to reason, and more as they try to coax the boy out of hiding. When they give up and go away, Danny realizes he can't remember what he's cross about and exits voluntarily. The text has a mocking and unsympathetic tinge in its treatment of the characters. Wild-eyed facial expressions in the colored-pencil illustrations reinforce the sting of caricature, and offer some unattractive faces to look at as well. The unpleasant tone is established so firmly that readers are set up to react to Danny's ultimate capitulation with a snicker rather than with warm approval. William Steig's Spinky Sulks (Farrar, 1988) presents a more sympathetic, although humorous, portrait of a sulking child who lets go of his stubbornness by himself in his own time. --Liza Bliss, formerly at Leominster Public Library, MA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Tantrum time, followed by sulks: Danny's in the toybox and won't come out--never, for the rest of his life. One by one, members of his family offer lures, orders, bribes; then they come back disguised: a ``doctor'' and even the ``Fire Brigade'' try to cajole him--until ``the Old Firefighter'' (Grandma) suggests, sensibly enough, that they should try leaving Danny alone--and he realizes that he's no longer mad about whatever it was (he's forgotten) and comes out. This doesn't have quite the comic genius of Steig's Spinky Sulks (1988), but it's still right on target. Greder's large, informal pictures extend the humor and the family interaction. (Picture book. 3-7) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.