Synopsis
How do you deal with a bully? A stellar author-illustrator team shows that a touch of playfulness can go a long way.
Little wind-up soldier A-One is in charge. At least that’s what he tells the other toys: Sally, Maddy, and Sid. When he tells them to turn his key, they do it. When he tells them they’re no good, they feel bad. He calls them all kinds of things: no good, hopeless, the worst. Or was that hope-use, good-no, and less-less? Somehow, stringing all those mean words together makes them start to sound, well, silly — and even though A-One doesn’t mean to, he finds himself smiling too. From the incomparable Michael Rosen and Bob Graham comes an insightful, child-friendly tale about learning how to be one of the gang.
Children's Literature
Even a toy can be a bully. And the other toys must find a way to deal with him. As a young girl and her mother leave the house one morning on the front end-papers, their dog is contemplating the toys swept up by a broom. One of them, a wind-up drummer, asserts, "I'm A-One. I'm a BIG A-One." He demands that the doll, Sally, wind him up. But she's "no good," he declares. Neither is Maddy, the duck, nor Sid, the pig. Wound up, A-One proceeds to make fun of each of the others, taking their possessions and taking charge. As he calls them ever worse names, they begin to laugh. Despite himself, A-One smiles too. They remind him that he would be no good at all if they did not wind his key. He laughs, gives them back their hat, scarf, so forth and announces that he is "one of the gang" as the girl and her mother return on the back end pages and the toys are back with the broom. Graham's pen and ink line drawings create an appealing quartet and an observing dog. Watercolors add to the development of toys with believable personalities. The small toys become large as they act across the pages, offering a lesson in cooperation. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz