The Skunk
A Picture Book
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This sly, hilarious tale, The Skunk, brings together luminaries Mac Barnett and Patrick McDonnell for the first time.
An Entertainment Weekly Best Kids' Book
When a skunk first appears in the tuxedoed man's doorway, it's a strange but possibly harmless occurrence. But then the man finds the skunk following him, and the unlikely pair embark on an increasingly frantic chase through the city, from the streets to the opera house to the fairground. What does the skunk want? It's not clear-but soon the man has bought a new house in a new neighborhood to escape the little creature's attention, only to find himself missing something. . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An impassive, red-nosed skunk another inimitable McDonnell (A Perfectly Messed-Up Story) critter appears on a man's doorstep. Why is it there? What does it want? And why does it keep following him no matter where he goes even into the opera house and onto the head of an adjacent opera buff? No answer is forthcoming, so the man does what anyone in his desperate situation would do: he starts a new life in a different part of the city. And all is merry and bright (in fact, McDonnell's palette turns from almost monochromatic to kindergarten primary) until... well, let's just say it's possible to be emotionally as well as literally skunked. Barnett's (Battle Bunny) pokerfaced narration gives off a deliciously Hitchcockian air of high style and deep-seated dread ("I'll admit that I began to panic. I ran past the wharf and turned down an alley. It was a dead end"), and the collaborators' refusal to wrap up with a cuddly reconciliation results in a story that speaks to the urbane existentialist/absurdist lurking in the heart of every reader. Ages 4 8.
