The Experiments of Doctor Vermin

September 23, 2002
In this wry sendup of horror clichés, an affable pig has car trouble in wolf country one dark and stormy Halloween. When he approaches a gloomy mansion for help, a diabolical scientist turns him into a giant. "You're huge, and I'm in complete control of your mind!" Dr. Vermin cackles. "But this was where the evil doctor was wrong." The hero foils Vermin and even overcomes his dread of wolves. Egan (A Mile from Ellington Station) sets a satiric tone with nuanced understatement. His earthy palette exudes firelit warmth, and his pliant, pillowy forms soften the spookiness. Ages 4-8.

October 1, 2002
PreS-Gr 3-Sheldon, a porcine short-order cook, is driving along looking for work on his least favorite night of the year (Halloween) when his car breaks down. Then a loud clap and a distant howling in the dark woods terrify him, as he has a distinct fear of both thunder and wolves. And so begins the rollicking romp through the mansion of the evil Dr. Vermin, who captures Sheldon, turning him into a pig monster four times his original size. When the mad scientist realizes that he doesn't have control of his victim's mind, he kicks him out, and Sheldon runs next door for help, only to find two kindly humans who, he learns, are really wolves on whom Dr. Vermin has experimented. The pig admirably faces all of his fears, saving the day (or night, in this case) and securing a job in the process-cooking for the wolf couple. Egan's not-at-all-frightening artwork is full of amusing details, from the expressions of the evil doctor and terrified pig to the wolves in human form. Young children will enjoy the muted artwork as much as they will appreciate this super silly, slightly scary story.-Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY

Copyright 2002 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2002
K-Gr. 3. It's a dark, stormy Halloween night and a small, timid pig named Sheldon is looking for work as a short-order cook. When his car breaks down, he seeks refuge in the dark mansion on a nearby hill. That's his first mistake, because in that creepy house he encounters the evil Doctor Edmund Vermin, who is bent on ruling the world--with Sheldon's unwitting and unwilling help! Could it get any worse? Well, yes, it could. But after many a plot complication, our small, porcine hero discovers reservoirs of pluck he didn't know he possessed. Author-illustrator Egan's Rocky Horror picture book is an amusing homage to the movies of the 1930s, though his imaginative pictures are in living color, alas, and not in glorious black and white. Nevertheless, this suspenseful effort is nail-bitingly good fun for young readers--and their parents.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)