Another Night at the Museum

December 15, 2012
In this blatantly commercial retread, the author of Night at the Museum (1994, revised 2007, film version 2006) gives the marine exhibits a turn to frolic. Having hurried to work, museum guard Larry frets as he nods off that he's left the bathtub faucet on back home--which translates in a dream to a flooded Manhattan and a museum building pushed out to sea by the blue whale and other reanimated specimens. The cartoon art looks equally dashed off, with sketchy backdrops fronted by hastily drawn figures like an octopus that never shows more than five tentacles and a seahorse that's the same size as the adjacent sea turtle. Unsurprisingly, with help from his daughter Melissa, Larry gets the faucet turned off, the water drained away and the exhibits back in their proper places before dawn. Earnest closing disclaimers that it's not actually possible either to flood Manhattan from a faucet or to pull the American Museum of Natural History anywhere are superfluous, if not downright condescending. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, flooding New York might not be the best-timed story idea. Larry's promise of yet more sequels in the works is equally ill-advised. (Picture book. 5-7)

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February 1, 2013

K-Gr 2-Larry, the sleepy guard from The Night at the Museum (Barron's, 1993), is back for another adventure at the American Museum of Natural History. This time he falls asleep in the Ocean Hall while wondering if he turned off the faucet in his bathtub. He "awakes" to his daughter's phone call alerting him that New York City is flooded. All the animals from the Ocean Hall disappear into the tree-high water. Melissa arrives just as the whole museum is pushed down Central Park West by the escaped blue whale and giant octopus. They sail past the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty as she frolics with myriad sea creatures. By promising them an even better adventure the next night, Larry convinces the critters to haul the museum home and return to their exhibit before morning. The trip back includes a quick stop by Larry's apartment so he can turn off his faucet. Trenc's pencil and ink illustrations aptly depict this wacky adventure. The colors-blues, greens, yellow, pink-work well with the underwater theme, and the sight of half-submerged New York icons will excite kids who recognize them. This zany story is awash in good-natured bumbling, sea animals, and dream logic. Sure to be of interest due to the popularity of the movie based on The Night at the Museum.-Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2013
Grades 1-3 Trenc follows up his Night at the Museum (2006) with another cheerfully outlandish romp starring the sleepy night watchman of the Museum of Natural History. After the high jinks with the dinosaurs in the last episode, Larry gets assigned to the more innocuous Ocean Hall. About a second later, he falls asleep, but he is woken up when his daughter calls to tell him that he left the bathtub faucet on, and now all of New York has been flooded. The museum gets tugged around by a blue whale and giant octopus; Larry finds his daughter swimming around with ancient amphibians (giving Trenc the opportunity to introduce the coelacanth, a living fossil fish); and other watery havoc ensues before Larry is able to set everything high and dry for the morning. Pencil lines and watercolor washes plunge the night city into deep watery blues, and the pop-eyed underwater critters are a uniformly friendly bunch. Little marine biologists will savor the thought of favored museum exhibits coming to life, and the story is jaunty enough to become a favorite for anyone who enjoys a fine, imaginative flight of fancy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)