Got your nose!

Becky thinks she's too old for her beloved grandpa Max's classic nose-snatching trick, until he does it one more time, and she discovers that her nose is actually gone! Worse yet, the nose leaps out of his pocket and, being "extremely runny," proceeds to lead its two pursuers on a merry chase. Endowed with stick limbs in Willan's cartoon illustrations, the snub but speedy schnoz blows past onlookers (comments one: "If I could pick any nose, I'd certainly pick that one!") until Grandpa at last resnatches and reattaches it. Grateful Becky finally agrees with his conclusion--a proposition that Katz has been preaching for many years--that "you're never too old for silly fun." Storytime audiences will be delighted to go with the flow, particularly in pairings with similarly perambulatory proboscises, such as Jason Eaton's The Day My Runny Nose Ran Away or Catherine Cowan's adaptation of the surreal Nikolai Gogol's The Nose.

Follow your nose on an adventure! Becky, a tan-skinned girl with poofy dark hair and a missing tooth, loves playing with her Grandpa Max, who is bald with tan skin. But when Grandpa Max attempts to play a final trick on Becky as he is leaving for the day, our heroine soon discovers that the "got your nose!" joke is no laughing matter--her nose is tucked unknowingly into Grandpa Max's pocket! She runs after Grandpa Max--or "Mampa Max," as Becky has to pronounce it now--to tell him what's going on, and the nose takes off, leaping out of Grandpa Max's pocket and growing arms and legs. The nose leads them on a merry chase across town before returning back to Becky's face thanks to a combination of luck and smart thinking. As the duo are about to part, Becky's game of "got your ear!" starts the mischief all over again. It's a clever idea, but some clunky choices along the way impede the story. Becky's mispronunciations sans nose are amusing, but some don't work. This becomes apparent when reading the story aloud: "We mustn't mive up mope," says Becky, but anyone plugging their nose can easily pronounce give and hope. Additionally, the nose's motivations--initially it seems to seek out its favorite smells--give way quickly to less logical activities like minigolf and swimming. (Who likes getting water up their nose?) The digital images do a lot of heavy lifting humorwise, but they can't save this story. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Lost by a nose. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.