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Dormer, Frank W.
5 Reviews
(2)
PS
Fresh out of the bathtub, three firefighting duckies careen from one wacky rescue mission to the next. "They are the Firefighter Duckies! They are brave. They are strong. They rescue... Whales in trees!" Dormer's outrageous plot relies on his comical digitally rendered illustrations to fill in what the well-paced text leaves out. The cartoon drawings feature relatively uncomplicated compositions on clean backgrounds, helping to contain the chaos.
Reviewer: Kitty Flynn
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
July, 2017
(4)
K-3
Dog's attempts to catch a cat are frustrated by the inexplicable appearance of objects and creatures, which, in the end, are revealed to be the work of a cat playing a computer game that manipulates Dog's world. Dormer's naive artistic style comically expresses Dog's frustration and outrage but results in illustrations without much depth or variety.
Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac
(4)
K-3
Two unnamed male kitchen denizens find first a sword, then a shield, and finally a helmet in the oven, which leads to a dunderheaded debate about the culprit's identity ("Pirates! Who will make us wear parrots on our heads"). Meanwhile, they haven't seen their knight friend Harold in a while... The nimble watercolors both reinforce the zaniness and add to the confusion.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
(1)
K-3
Uncle Flood tries writing, "The following story is all true," with his new pen; what appears: "You have a BIG nose." The insulting, subversive, and anarchic pen falls into the hands of others but finds its true purpose with Uncle Flood's nephew Horace. Dormer's skinny-limbed characters inhabiting a world of merry chaos are reminiscent of Quentin Blake and share his energy and warmth.
Reviewer: Sarah Ellis
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
March, 2012
(3)
PS
A monster named Socksquatch's left foot is toasty warm, but his right one (bare but for brownish-orange fur) is cold. He asks his monster friends for help, but the solution comes from an unexpected source: a peeved-looking damsel being carted off by a zombie. Dormer's spare text and silly--in both looks and behavior--creatures will elicit giggles from the preschooler set.
Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz
5 reviews
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