His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. 4-8)Ī collection of parental wishes for a child. Adults will need to explain the last scene as Benjy helps his baby brother-who looks like Richard Nixon. The message is upfront, but the silliness, á la The Simpsons (for which the author writes), will grab readers. The clever cover is even designed to look like a five-dollar bill.
What keeps the story from being grotesque are Catrow’s typical exaggerated caricatures that expand the brief text with humor and puns (a band-aid on Millard Fillmore Dam). The camp experience brings Benjy friends and an appreciation for his face and the way he looks. School teasing is the worst part: “Hey, Stinkin’ Lincoln! Split any rails lately?” His parents send him to Camp What-Cha-Ma-Call-It where all the kids look like things: the Mona Lisa, a frog, a toaster, the backside of a horse. Every year, his birthday gift is the same-a stovepipe hat. From the day he is born, Benjy looks like Honest Abe, complete with protruding ears, wart, and beard.
Benjy looks like Abraham Lincoln as only Catrow can evoke.
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