Review by Booklist Review
"The masters of goofy, Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, are back to relate the adventures of two unlikely friends in seven very brief stories. Cowboy and Octopus become friends and shake hands and shake hands and shake hands, help each other, eat beans, try out scary Halloween costumes, disagree on what constitutes a beautiful day, enjoy a joke together, and learn about truth and friendship. The camaraderie between Cowboy and Octopus is reminiscent of that between Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad, and the message, if there is one, is that silliness is good. Attractive, clever illustrations are executed in mixed media collages, with Cowboy and Octopus as cutouts placed against various backdrops created with paper designs and other cutouts of objects depicted in photos and vintage drawings. Children will race through the short text, but pause to ponder the carefully crafted collages. They will enjoy the antics and recognize the small sacrifices one must make to maintain a valued friendship."--"Enos, Randall" Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Scieszka and Smith (Math Curse) unpack a bin of old toys and comics for this characteristically oddball entry. Their title page, which depicts a pair of scissors beside a sheet of "Western Heroes" paper dolls and an undersea comic book, reveals the origins of Cowboy and Octopus-both are paper cutouts that pose the same way throughout this episodic volume. Blond, cinematic Cowboy wears pressed jeans tucked into fancy boots and a fringed paisley shirt suitable for the rodeo. Sky-blue Octopus, with a tangle of tentacles, is shaded with pre-digital lavender dots. After cooperating to ride a seesaw, they "shake hands, and shake hands, and shake hands" a total of eight times, cementing their friendship. Octopus wears a doily and tiara for a Halloween costume, proclaiming himself the tooth fairy ("Now that's scary," Cowboy quips) and attempts to tell Cowboy a knock-knock joke ("Ain't nobody there!" the dude protests). At "Chow Time," Cowboy cooks "Beans and Bacon, Bacon and Beans, and just plain Beans... with a little bit of bacon" for Octopus; the cephalopod, who likes neither, "licks one bean" because "Cowboy has worked so hard just for him." Greeting-card sentiments about friendship, punctuated by classic cowboy-isms dot the text. Those who love Scieszka and Smith's absurd humor will get the joke, but this is a lesser entry in the pair's pantheon. All ages. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-5-Picture-book readers meet an unlikely pair of friends here: a refined octopus and a cowboy who is a little rough around the edges. The two are actually paper cutouts: the title page reveals that Cowboy has been snipped from a Western Heroes paper-doll book and Octopus from a comic strip. Seven hilarious short stories are presented, beginning with the origin of the friendship, in which Cowboy is confused about a teeter-totter that doesn't seem to work until Octopus "repairs" it by sitting on the opposite end, and concluding with the pair gazing into the sunset of a picture postcard. All of the vignettes are silly and perfectly absurd; Scieszka captures a childlike dialogic cadence and ends the pieces with the sudden, agreeable solutions to problems that kids often come up with. Incorporating mid-20th-century illustrations, graphic art, newspaper clippings, and toys, the collage and mixed-media artwork perfectly matches the wacky text. The colors are slightly muted and the paper appears to have yellowed with age. The delightful paper protagonists never change poses, though Smith occasionally dresses them in zany paper hats and silly costumes, and their static nature adds to the humor. Share this title with devotees of Scieszka's and Smith's other collaborations and with fans of Mini Grey's Traction Man Is Here! (Knopf, 2005). Cowboy and Octopus prove that we all get by with a little help from our friends.-Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) Move over, Laurel and Hardy, Calvin and Hobbes, macaroni and cheese. There's a new twosome in town -- a cowpoke and a cephalopod, no less. Scieszka and Smith, themselves a crackerjack team, have cast their unlikely duo in seven vignettes that reveal the ins and outs of friendship. When we first meet the pair (which is also when they first meet each other), Cowboy is gesturing toward a long plank that slants toward the ground. Outlined in white, he resembles a paper doll sporting a ten-gallon hat, fringed shirt, and polka-dotted neckerchief. ""This dang thing is always broke,"" he complains, eyeing the plank. Three of Octopus's blue-and-purple tentacles curl into the scene. ""I think I can help,"" he says. With a turn of the page, we see Octopus on one end of a seesaw and Cowboy on the other. ""Some things work better with a friend,"" Octopus explains. The other six mini-stories follow in the same vein. All have a message of sorts, though it's never hammered home. And all are simply told, surprisingly fresh, and genuinely funny -- with Smith's artfully weathered mixed-media orchestrations pushing the humor level up and up and up. (Octopus dressed as the tooth fairy for Halloween is flat-out hilarious.) With the final page-turn, Cowboy and Octopus head off into the sunset under the oh-so-appropriate caption ""Adios Amigos."" (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Dynamic Duo set a new standard for unlikely pals in seven mini-tales on the ins and outs--and responsibilities--of buddyhood. The friendship that develops between bulbous blue Octopus and dim-bulb Cowboy begins when Octopus demonstrates that a seesaw works so much better with someone at each end. It survives every ensuing challenge, from a multi-course dinner of disgusting (to Octopus) beans and bacon, bacon and beans and just plain beans to Cowboy's honest, if undiplomatic, opinion that Octopus's new hat "looks like something my horse dropped behind him." Paper-doll cut-outs, the square-jawed cowboy and rubbery octopus almost never change, despite being placed in wildly varied settings assembled from clipped photos, newspaper and wallpaper. And despite vast differences between the retiring, mannerly mollusk and his extroverted bud, the two get along famously. How? It's usually clear enough, but for truly clueless readers, Octopus is generally good for a pithy summation. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
