Review by Booklist Review
Newspaper headlines set the stage for this crime tale, proclaiming, Spate of Spectacular Cheese Heists Stuns City. Notorious cheese thief Fingers McGraw (a mouse) makes his getaway from a robbery at Moo O'Sullivan's Cheese Parlor and encounters an assortment of hostile characters while being pursued by ace detective Jumbo Wayne Jr. (an elephant). As he flees, Fingers speaks directly to the kid reader, imploring him or her to be a lookout. Fingers is foiled anyway an anteater spits him out, and he lands on the lawman's hat. The final scene shows Fingers escaping once again, ever hopeful of getting help from the reader. This is not the usual cozy animal story; the characters are cartoon drawings placed over photographs of gritty street scenes (Think Knuffle Bunny with an edge). But they have plenty of personality, and although Fingers is on the wrong side of the law, there's still something endearing about him. Children who like offbeat stories with quirky illustrations will enjoy this one.--Enos, Randall Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The "notorious cheese thief Fingers McGraw," drawn as a pale-pink rat in a bandit mask, absconds with his favorite dairy product in this mixed-media spoof of the hardboiled genre. His nemesis is "ace lawman detective Jumbo Wayne Jr.," a stern elephant in a bobby's blue-black gear (this book originated in the U.K.), and Fingers enlists readers' help in avoiding capture. Expository captions, printed in an uneven typewriter font, chart the crime Dragnet-style: "11:00 a.m. It's a race against time." Colored voice bubbles, superimposed on photographs of gritty sidewalks, give Fingers's perspective. "Hey, kid! Yeah, you! Listen, you gotta do me a favor!" the rat hisses, whizzing by on a yellow moped. In an adult-friendly homage to Bogart and Bacall (almost certainly unappreciated by children), he instructs collaborators to signal if they see an elephant: "You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow!" During the getaway, two flat gray feet imply the jig is up-but a turn of the page reveals a rhino. A long flexible schnozzola sniffs out the rat-but the nose belongs to an anteater. Vere (the Tag-along Tales board books) takes his cues from the photos-plus-comics sequences of Mo Willems's Knuffle Bunny and from the mock-naive magic-marker drawings and collages of Lauren Child. Newspaper-clipping endpapers supply a backstory and postscript, reinforcements of the book's old-fashioned cops-and-robber parody. Ages 5-7. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Readers are enlisted by "Fingers McGraw," mouse and notorious thief, to help him escape the law after he steals some cheese. Their job is to be on the lookout for an elephant, Detective Jumbo Wayne Jr., who is hot on his trail. Youngsters follow Fingers, who rides a yellow scooter, as he journeys through, under, and over the city to avoid his pursuer, having close calls and meeting various enemies along the way. The mixed-media illustrations greatly enhance the story. Brightly painted characters are set against gritty photographic backdrops, creating spreads that look like a merger between an animated cartoon and film noir. Endpapers featuring newspaper articles about the mouse and his antics set the scene and add to the humor. While there are some references that will go over the heads of children ("You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow!"), the sheer energy and playfulness that are packed into every page will surely delight kids.-Shelley B. Sutherland, Niles Public Library, IL (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 Kirkus Book Review
Inviting readers to be his lookouts, and whistle ("You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow") should pursuing pachyderm police officer Jumbo Wayne Jr. catch up, cheese-stealing mouse Fingers McGraw leads a high-speed scamper down seedy back streets rendered with a mix of Photoshopped urban images and digitally created cartoon art. Replete with subplots, plus narrow escapes from rats, cats and other shady characters, this nocturnal escapade makes a compelling draw, even for children who won't catch the many movie references. Fingers is eventually nabbed--but as the final page and the sensationalistic newspaper story on the endpapers reveal, no jail can hold him for long. Better guard your gorgonzola. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
