The Frank Show

July 9, 2012
As in Marshall Armstrong Is New to Our School, British author/illustrator Mackintosh presents a story of an ordinary boy being won over, reluctantly, by someone outside the mainstream. In this case, it’s the narrator’s grandfather, Frank, a quintessentially cantankerous specimen of a man who believes things were better in the good ol’ days. “These days there are too many gadgets and gizmos,” Frank types out on a green “Prehistoric” brand typewriter. “I prefer doing things the old-fashioned way.” When the boy has to talk for “one full minute” about a family member for show-and-tell, Frank is his only option (“Mom was very busy and Dad had had a very long day”). The boy approaches show-and-tell like a prisoner headed for the gallows (Mackintosh draws him all alone in gray, while his classmates laugh and shout in color on the opposing page), but there’s more to Frank than his grandson realizes. Mackintosh’s busy, helter-skelter images contribute mightily to the story’s humor and emotional honesty, but it’s the willful personalities of both of these protagonists that make it stand out. Ages 5–7.