Bob and Tom

June 26, 2017
Cazet is no stranger to offbeat friendship stories, as readers of his Minnie and Moo books or his recent Snail and Slug know. In a deadpan, dialogue-driven story that stretches from morning till night, he introduces farm turkeys Bob and Tom, who may lack smarts but are well-matched pals all the same. Time stamps guide readers through the day: there’s a morning rain shower at 6:45 (“It’s wet,” Tom notes. “It’s the water,” Bob replies), the turkeys attempt to acquire “suits that swim” in order to safely enter the pond in the afternoon, and they fret over losing their names later in the day. “Who am I talking to?” worries Bob. “Without a name I can’t see the who in you!” (They eventually pick new names, which happen to be their old ones.) There’s no shortage of physical comedy in Cazet’s scribbly textured, mixed-media images: in one, Bob peers at Sam through a magnifying glass, attempting to discern whether there’s anything inside his head, and a metal detector proves ineffective as they try to find their lost names. What a pair of turkeys. Ages 4–8.

May 15, 2017
A couple of turkeys do a whole lot of nothing on the farm. Bob and Tom are both tom turkeys, and they're good friends. They're also...not the sharpest tools in the shed, so to speak. In a sequence of time-stamped episodes, the turkeys get soaked in the rain (" 'It's wet, ' Tom noticed. 'It's the water, ' Bob explained"), ponder the contents of their heads, conspire to swipe "a suit that swims" from the clothesline so they can take a dip in the pond, and convince themselves that they've lost their names. These absurd little episodes are illustrated with detailed mixed-media pictures that depict the friends as plump, bumbling turkeys (who, oddly, seem to have navels) amid other farm animals and people going about their days in the background. Certain scenes seem a bit overworked, with characters blending in a bit too much with the saturated setting, but the humor will help engage readers. Some of the humor is so understated it may take a while to sink in, as when Tom explains to a cow that their names are "small" and have "a round thing in the middle...like a doughnut." "What kind of doughnut?" the cow asks. Children will ask their caregivers why they are snickering and be thus ushered into the world of Cazet's dry wit. Agreeably silly stuff in the classic noodlehead vein. (Picture book. 4-6)

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June 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 2-Bob and Tom are two befuddled turkeys bumbling through a day. Beginning early in the morning, the birds find a dry spot from the rain, go swimming in Mrs. Farmer's two-piece bathing suit, and lose their names. The day ends, and the pair ponder the setting sun. Part Waiting for Godot and part Abbott and Costello routine, the tale is full of the two clueless turkeys' mindless philosophical musings. The sun sets because it "is old," so it takes the night to get gas from the gas station to fill it. Cazet's absurd, deadpan humor will appeal to both children and adults, and the large illustrations are expressive and comical. Time stamps appear at intervals throughout the story, suggesting chapters and detailing vignettes of the turkeys' long day. While the vocabulary and language are not particularly difficult, sometimes the humor is a bit more abstract, which may be challenging for some younger readers. VERDICT This book is best shared one-on-one, wherever supreme silliness rules. A good addition to most collections.-Kaitlin Malixi, Bucks County Free Library, Doylestown, PA

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