Review by New York Times Review
Many series for fledgling readers feature mischievous girls and their gradeschool exploits: Ramona Quimby, Junie B. Jones and Clementine, to name a few. Others, like the Magic Treehouse books, send children on fantasy adventures. Abby Hanlon's marvelous Dory Fantasmagory series, featuring the plucky heroine Dory, also known as Rascal, combines the two. As Dory herself puts it: "My two worlds swirl together like a chocolate and vanilla ice cream cone. Real and unreal get mixed up in one crazy flavor." On every page, Hanlon's charming illustrations - if you squint, they resemble a child's drawings - mix things up as well, interweaving layers of visual and narrative storytelling to invite us in to Dory's active imagination. The fourth and latest book in the series, DORY FANTASMAGORY: Head in the Clouds (Dial, $15.99, ages 5 to 8), will have fans rejoicing that Hanlon's hybrid formula is still going strong. Dory faces obstacles both mundane and enchanted, and surmounts them all. She dumps an objectionable winter coat and de vises a pretend game to captivate a weepy friend. After losing her first tooth, she recognizes the Tooth Fairy, shopping incognito, and chases her through a grocery store. And in perhaps her greatest triumph in the series so far, she foils the evil plan of her imaginary nemesis, Mrs. Gobble Gracker, to take over that benevolent spirit's nightly visits. Throughout the series, Dory deals with conventional problems - handling scornful older siblings, starting school, making friends, learning to read - in unconventional ways. In the first book, she faces her kindergarten fears by inventing Mrs. Gobble Gracker, an even more intimidating foe. With her looming stature and witchy features, she recalls James Marshall's illustrations of Miss Viola Swamp, "the meanest substitute teacher in the whole world," in "Miss Nelson Is Missing," by Harry G. Allard Jr. Dory's everyday world is populated with other magical and comic figures, like Mary, her monster, and Mr. Nuggy, her (male) fairy godmother. And while many stories for children send their protagonists back to the real world for good - Wendy grows up and can't return to Neverland; Lucy leaves Narnia; Jackie Paper abandons Puff the Magic Dragon - Hanlon does not champion maturity as the answer to adversity. A former first-grade teacher, she recognizes the value of coping strategies that are particular to children. Rascal becomes resilient, resourceful and adventurous thanks to the permeable boundary between reality and fantasy, not in spite of it. "Try not to imagine things," Dory's sister, Violet, tells her when she heads off to kindergarten. But it is Rascal's imagination that allows her to adapt to new surroundings, practice new skills and make new friends. In "Head in the Clouds," Hanlon once again shows an unerring sense of what distresses children (that "bunchy" winter coat), what excites them (candy canes discovered in pockets), and what they fear (a tooth fairy delivery gone astray). There is, as always, much to laugh over. We see Luke's and Violet's frustrated memories of life with infant Dory. We learn the contents of the Tooth Fairy's purse (like Beyoncé, she carries a certain condiment). And we get Mrs. Gobble Gracker's withering assessment of "Where the Wild Things Are": "I'll show them terrible teeth." When Dory loses her first tooth, her doleful friend Melody sobs, "It means you are growing up!" The admiring reader earnestly hopes not yet. ?
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [February 18, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
A little sister causes all kinds of trouble in Hanlon's debut chapter book. Aimed at beginning readers, it is narrated by six-year-old Dory, whose chief goal in life is to be invited to play with her older brother and sister. Of course, they don't want to play with her because she acts like such a baby, asks constant questions, and plays with imaginary creatures. Indeed Dory has such a vivid imagination that the black-and-white illustrations often picture what Dory believes is happening, not what the rest of the family is experiencing. Young readers may or may not identify with Dory, whose antics annoy even her mother (like when Dory persists in pretending to be a puppy at the doctor's office), but they will better understand another child's intense need for attention. In both words and pictures, Hanlon succeeds in getting inside Dory's head and it's pretty lively in there.--Nolan, Abby Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Dory's nickname, "Rascal," is an immediate tip-off to the six-year-old's personality, but there's more to Dory than just being a spitfire. To combat her older siblings' refusal to play with her because she's a "baby," Dory conjures up Mary, a monster friend who appreciates her incessant questions, like "Why do we have armpits?" and "What is the opposite of sandwich?" Dory's pestering leads Luke and Violet to tell her that 507-year-old Mrs. Gobble Gracker, "who robs baby girls," is looking for her. This sets Dory's imagination spinning, leading to the appearance of the vampiric Mrs. Gobble Gracker and the gnomelike Mr. Nuggy, who introduces himself as her fairy godmother. Reality and fantasy combine hilariously in a story that, at heart, is about a girl who wants little more than to spend time with her brother and sister. Hanlon's (Ralph Tells a Story) loosely scrawled illustrations, speech balloons, and hand-lettering are an enormous part of the story's humor, channeling Dory's energy and emotions as emphatically as the narration. Time spent with Dory is time well spent. Ages 6-8. Agent: Ann Tobias, A Literary Agency for Children's Books. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-Six-year-old Dory has a very fantasmagory imagination, much to the dismay of her two older siblings. Summer break has begun and the multiple, pesky attempts by Dory to join in the family fun are repeatedly rejected. Exasperated, Violet and Luke conspire to teach Dory a lesson; they invent the terrifying 507-year-old Mrs. Gobble Gracker who steals baby girls and is now looking specifically for Dory! However, with the aid of her (invisible) friends-Mary and Mr. Nuggy, the fairy godmother-Dory thwarts their plan and disguises herself. Hanlon's whimsical story about the antics of a youngest child who finally convinces her siblings that sometimes it can be fun to pretend is sure to resonate with young children.and their families. Suzy Jackson provides excellent narration, especially as mischievous Dory and her pushed-to-the-limits mother. VERDICT A fine choice for all collections.-Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City Schools, OH © Copyright 2015. 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
All Dory, or "Rascal" as her older siblings call her, wants is to play with her brother and sister. What follows is a wild adventure with a robber, monsters, fairy godmothers, and more--all orchestrated by Dory's fantastic imagination. The frequent kidlike illustrations integrate seamlessly with the text, adding another layer of madcap humor. Try this as a lively group read-aloud. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
With words, pictures and pictures with words, 6-year-old Dory, called Rascal, recounts how she finally gets her older brother and sister to play with her. Rascal's siblings complain that she's always pestering them. She acts like a baby, she asks weird questions, and she chatters endlessly with her imaginary monster friend. So they tell her a kidnapping witch, Mrs. Gobble Gracker, is looking for her. In her efforts to avoid capture, Rascal becomes a dog. As a "dog," she's invisible to the little-girl-stealer but appealing to her older brother, who, it turns out, always wanted to have a dog. She maintains her dogginess all the way through a doctor's checkup until a surprise vaccination spurs her to speech and retaliation. Rascal and her invented fairy godmother, Mr. Nuggy (he doesn't look much like a fairy godmother), use the ensuing timeout to concoct poison soup for the witch. Eventually, the witch is vanquished and order more or less restored. Redeemed in the eyes of her siblings because she's brave enough to retrieve a bouncy ball from the toilet as well as wildly imaginative, Rascal finally gets her wish. Often just on the edge of out of control, this inventive child is irresistible and her voice, convincing. Childlike drawings, often embellished with hand-lettered narrative or speech bubbles, of round-headed humans, Sendak-ian monsters and a snaggle-toothed witch add to the humor. Charming, funny and true to life. (Fiction. 6-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
