Walter the Farting Dog: Trouble at the Yard Sale FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
Walter, the rootin'-tootin' pooch of bestselling fame, becomes an unwitting accomplice to a bank robber in this hilariously malodorous misadventure.
Walter's family is having a yard sale; but when nobody shows up, Father begins slashing prices. Then a kooky-looking gentleman offers to buy their gassy dog, and Father is only too happy to give him a good deal. Unfortunately, no one knows that this mysterious dog lover is actually a crook who intends to use Walter as a secret weapon for securing ill-gotten gains: He plans to fill balloons with Walter's foul air, then pop them to knock out security guards and bank customers! However, Walter catches "wind" of his new owner's foul plans, and after a cigar-meets-fart explosion, Walter makes his break and brings the police straight to the robber's hideout.
Featuring more of Audrey Colman's zany artwork, this sublimely smelly sequel definitely cuts the cheese -- er, mustard. Young readers will howl at scenes of wide-eyed Walter hooked up to the fart catcher and cross-eyed bank customers keeling over from the burst balloons. Walter's many fans will be holding their breath (and their noses) for more adventures featuring their flatulent friend. Matt Warner
ANNOTATION
After being sold at the family's yard sale, Walter is put to use blowing up balloons for a clown who is bent on robbing banks, but he escapes and becomes a hero.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Walter's family is holding a yard sale, but there are few customers. Walter, fartingcontentedly near Father, wonders why. When a man offers ten dollars for Walter, Father readily agrees. Walter wonders why. Walter is sad to leave his family behind, but relieved to discover that his new owner is a clown. Walter figures he will help the clown bring joy to children on their birthdays. But the clown has a dastardly plot: he will use Walter's gas to inflate balloons and then pop them to stun guards during bank robberies. Will Walter turn to the dark side? Of course not! He comes out a hero and is reunited with his family by doing what he does best.
Author Biography: William Kotzwinkle is the author of several children's books, including Walter the Farting Dog; The World is Big and I'm So Small; and E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial. His many adult books include The Bear Went Over the Mountain; The Fan Man; Fata Morgana; and Doctor Rat. A celebrated satirist, he is a two-time winner of both the National Magazine Award for Fiction and the World Fantasy Award.
Glenn Murray, co-author of Walter the Farting Dog, is a supervisor for educational technology in New Brunswick, Canada. He recently spent a year in Jordan, serving as an advisor to the Ministry of Education in Amman and setting up computers in classrooms. He has written radio dramas for the CBC and spends a lot of time doing public readings in elementary schools.
Audrey Colman illustrated and designed Walter the Farting Dog, her first picture book. More recently she wrote and illustrated Francine. Her artwork has been featured in magazines, posters, and multimedia projects.
SYNOPSIS
Walter's family is holding a yard sale, but there are few customers. Walter, farting contentedly near Father, wonders why. When a man offers ten dollars for Walter, Father readily agrees. Walter wonders why. Walter is sad to leave his family behind, but relieved to discover that his new owner is a clown. Walter figures he will help the clown bring joy to children on their birthdays. But the clown has a dastardly plot: he will use Walter's gas to inflate balloons and then pop them to stun guards during bank robberies. Will Walter turn to the dark side? Of course not! He comes out a hero and is reunited with his family by doing what he does best.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Companion books blossom this spring. The maligned mutt returns in a sequel to last year's bestseller: Walter the Farting Dog: Trouble at the Yard Sale by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray, illus. by Audrey Colman. Father, fed up with Walter's malodorous practice keeping buyers away from his yard sale table, sells the family pet to a suspicious-looking fellow who uses the pooch's singular ability as part of a bank-robbing scheme-a plan that, er, backfires. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Children's Literature - Ken Marantz
This is the second book about the dog with a major gas problem. It will probably equally delight some of the kids and offend the more sensitive just as the first did. While at a yard sale, Walter is stolen by a crook who makes him fill balloons with his potent gastric product. Then, dressed as a clown, the robber invades a bank, pops the gas-filled balloons, and makes off with a bag full of bills as the guard and others in the bank struggle from the effects of the freshly released gas. Walter escapes captivity, however, and there is a happy ending, as Walter's family welcomes him back, problem and all. The apparently computer-generated full and double-page scenes are crowded with an odd assortment of objects and equally odd-looking people in all sorts of styles and combinations, with Walter the most realistic-looking of all. The visual fun may be more attractive than the gross point of the zany plot. 2004, Dutton Children's Books/Penguin Young Readers Group, Ages 4 to 8.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2-In this second far-fetched tale about Walter, neighbors have been avoiding the yard-sale table where Walter has been sitting all day. Unbelievably, Father wonders why! Yet he doesn't hesitate to sell the pup to the first man who stops by to inquire. The new owner, a clown, intends to use Walter for a bank heist by fastening him to a "fart-catcher" in order to inflate balloons with his obnoxious-smelling gas. As the clown pops the balloons in the bank, customers and bank tellers are overcome with the stench. When the perp arrives home with the sack of money, he lights a cigar and is launched across the room because of a gas leak. Walter runs out the door toward his former home, and the police follow the trail of $100 bills fluttering behind him. As they try to arrest Walter, he leads them back to the real culprit. Pages are busy with digital illustrations that give an olive green pallor to the human skin tone and a garish look to the clown. For those who appreciated the lowbrow, tasteless humor of the first book, this one provides much more of the same.-Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Home
