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Overview
"Bark, George," says George's mother, and George goes: "Meow," which definitely isn't right, because George is a dog.
And so is his mother, who repeats, "Bark, George." And George goes, "Quack, quack."
What's going on with George? Find out in this hilarious new picture book from Jules Feiffer.
2000 ALA Notable Children's Book, 2000 Notable Children's Books(ALA), and 2000 Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor Book
2001 Buckeye Children's Book Award, 00-01 Keystone to Reading Book Award Masterlist, and 00 2X2 Reading List (TLA)
Author Biography: Jules Feiffer has won a number of prizes for his cartoons, plays, and screenplays, including the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. His books for children include The Man in the Ceiling, A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears, I Lost My Bear, Bark, George, and Meanwhile... He lives in New York City.In His Own Words...
"I have been writing and drawing comic strips all illy life, first as a six-year-old, when I'd try to draw like my heroes: Alex Raymond, who did Flash Gordon, E. C. Segar, who did Popeye, Milton Caniff, who did Terry and the Pirates. The newspaper strip back in the I 1940s was a glorious thing to behold. Sunday pages were full-sized and Colored broadsheets that created a universe that could swallow a boy whole.
"I was desperate to be a cartoonist. One of my heroes was Will Eisner, who did a weekly comic book supplement to the Sunday comics. One day I walked into his office and showed him my samples. He said they were lousy, but lie hired me anyway. And I began my apprenticeship.
"Later I was drafted Out of Eisner's office into tile Korean War.Militarism, regimentation, and mindless authority combined to squeeze the boy cartoonist Out Of me and bring out the rebel. There was no format at the time to fit [he work I raged and screamed to do, so I had to invent one. Cartoon satire that commented on the Lin military the Bomb, the Cold War, the hypocrisy of grownLIPS, the mating habits of urban Young men and women, these were my subjects. After four years of trying to break into print and getting nowhere, the Village Voice, the first alternative newspaper, offered to publish me. Only one catch: They couldn't Pay me. What (lid I care?
"My weekly satirical strip, Sick Sick Sick, later renamed Feiffer started appearing in late 1956. Two years later, Sick Sick Sick came out in book form and became a bestseller. The following years saw a string of cartoon collections, syndication, stage and screen adaptations of the cartoon. One, Munro, won an Academy Award.
"This was heady stuff, taking me miles beyond my boyhood dreams. The only thing that got in the way of my enjoying it was the real world. The Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights revolution. The country was coining unglued and my weekly cartoons didn't seem to be an adequate way of handling it. So I started writing plays: Little Murders, The White House Murder Case, Carnal Knowledge, Grownups. All the themes of my comic strips expanded theatrically and later, cinematically to give me the time and space I needed to explain the times to myself and to my audience.
"I grew older. I had a family, and late in life, a very young family. I started thinking, as old guys will, about what I wanted these children to read, to learn. I read them E.B. White and Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl, and, one day, I thought, I ley, I can do this."
"Writing for young readers connects me profess sionally to) a part of myself that I didn't know how to let out until I was sixty: that kid who lived a life of innocence, mixed with confusion and consternation, disappointment and dopey humor. And who drew comic strips and needed friends—and found them—in cartoons and children's books that told him what the grown-ups in his life had left out. That's what reading (lid for me when I was a kid. Now, I try to return the favor."
Synopsis
"Bark, George," says George's mother, and George goes: "Meow," which definitely isn't right, because George is a dog.
And so is his mother, who repeats, "Bark, George." And George goes, "Quack, quack."
What's going on with George? Find out in this hilarious new picture book from Jules Feiffer.
Sesame Street Parents
There's a laugh on every page as Jules Feiffer tells an old story in a fresh way, with just a few words and big, colorful, cartoonlike pictures. Preschoolers will act out the animal sounds, and they'll love the way the small dog turns a logical, familiar world upside down.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Celebrated storyteller Jules Feiffer is a man of many talents: This Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, and novelist is also an acclaimed children's book author! Bark, George is a delightfully silly picture book about a dog who can't seem to bark right; for some unknown reason, he makes all sorts of other animal sounds. Bark, George is written for very young children, but this fantastic farce is sure to amuse kids -- and adults! -- of all ages.Sesame Street Parents
There's a laugh on every page as Jules Feiffer tells an old story in a fresh way, with just a few words and big, colorful, cartoonlike pictures. Preschoolers will act out the animal sounds, and they'll love the way the small dog turns a logical, familiar world upside down.Kathleen Odean
When George, a lanky puppy, is told by his mother to bark, he answers with a "meow" and then a series of other animal noises. When she takes him to a human vet, the man pulls animal after animal out of George's throat. The problem seems to be solved, until the last page when George opens his mouth and "Hello" comes out. On clean, wide pages, the cartoon like illustrations feature funny facial expressions and priceless body language. A clever, catchy story from a master cartoonist.— Horn Book