Mr. Pants--Slacks, Camera, Action!

December 15, 2014
Mr. Pants, his human mother and his feline sisters return for a second graphic-novel-format chapter book.Armed with a video camera, Mr. Pants wants to make a spy movie to win a contest and get enough money to go to Hawaii, but chores and his little sister Grommy's tea party stand in his way. Meanwhile, middle child Foot Foot desperately wants to find out the end of her (mind-numbingly lame) bedtime story, but someone has ripped out the last pages. The library's not open; the bookstore is fresh out! Grommy's guests arrive, and they have no interest in being in Mr. Pants' movie. Hilarity does not ensue. McCormick has dialed way down on the above-age-level attempts at humor all too present in the first Mr. Pants tale, but he's left in the annoying behavior of his cat stand-ins for human kids...though it has been tempered a bit. Mr. Pants' finished movie, pieced together and overdubbed by the whole family, is painfully unfunny to read. The over-the-top, fake exuberance of the characters and the tedium of the plot are compounded by the staginess of Lazzell's flat-colored, often horizontal panels. Mildly amusing bratty antics-but nothing more. (Graphic novel. 6-10)

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December 1, 2014

Gr 2-4-The high-energy feline is back in eight brief chapters, and this time he is focused on entering a film contest that promises to pay the winner $1,000. Despite his tunnel vision for all things film, he must first pitch in during Chore Day and help his little sister with her tea party. In typical schemer fashion, Mr. Pants enlists his siblings' help in distracting their mom in a humorous game to make her utter a specific frustrated response ("Honestly, kids.") in order to be assigned the least time-consuming chore, allowing him maximum movie prep time. However, the plan it backfires on him. In "Tea Time Drama," Mr. Pants tries to con his sister's friends into starring in his movie, but he ends up ruining the fun by making all kinds of unwelcome suggestions. Just when he thinks he's run out of time to make a movie, he realizes he can edit all of the events of the past few days together, but will it be enough to take home the big prize? The story is told through dialogue balloons and illustration panels. The vibrant full-color artwork reflects the comical nature of the characters and the plot and uses thick black marker outlines to define the characters, in a style reminiscent of newspaper Sunday comics. Mr. Pants is depicted with one eye that is slightly larger than the other, which is in line with the zany cartoon animation aimed at children. The story line is complex enough to keep readers guessing, and the ending will provoke with big laughs. The characters act more like kids than felines and benefit from having a mother who gets in on some of the action with humorous results. A great choice for readers who are graduating from Mo Willems's early readers and just discovering Doreen Cronin's easy-reader chapter books.-Samantha Lumetta, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH

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