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Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon (2012)

by Patty Lovell(Favorite Author)

4.29 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0399254064 (ISBN13: 9780399254062)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Putnam Juvenile

review 1: Booklist (November 1, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 5))Preschool-Grade 1. Molly Lou Melon, half Dr. Seuss character and half Animaniacs cartoon, has tons of toys, but she remembers her grandmother’s admonition: “Back in the olden days, I didn’t have fancy dolls. . . . I made them out of twigs, leaves and flowers like hollyhocks and daisies.” Inspired, Molly Lou experiments with making a floral “whoseywhatsit,” and then turns a backyard tree into a dollhouse, boxes into a race car, and clouds into quality TV programming. When Gertie, overindulged and bored, moves in next door, Molly Lou shows her how to embrace found objects, and soon the two girls are happily exhausted. The pro-imaginative-play and anti-consumerism message, about as subtle as a freight train, will be app... morereciated by many, yet it’s the pencil, watercolor, and collage pictures, all color-soaked double-page spreads, that are the true delight. Catrow, just as he did in Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon (2001), provides the sugar to this tale’s medicine.School Library Journal (December 1, 2012)K-Gr 2-Molly Lou Melon has a house full of plastic toys and gewgaws, but her grandmother never did, and she tells her granddaughter about how she made playthings from found objects when she was young. In spread after spread, the youngster learns to use her imagination. When a new girl moves in next door, Molly Lou introduces her to this new way of playing, but Gertie is stuck in the modern, TV-watching, static-toy world. Of course, Molly Lou is eventually able to turn the tide, showing that imagination rules. The protagonist is a large-headed, bug-eyed girl living in a bright green and pink springtime cartoon world filled with details that will keep young readers busy. Catrow's cartoon-style pencil, watercolor, and collage illustrations match Molly Lou's lavish imagination. The book could have become didactic and preachy, but words and pictures work well to present a straightforward lesson on the value of good old-fashioned play.-Angela J. Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, NS, Canada (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
review 2: I love books about the power of imagination. This charming story is one of the better ones, not just about imagination, but the power of invention and "can do" for oneself--and it's all about girls!Now the author's text is charming all on it's own, introducing us to Molly, a girl who seems to have a lot of things, but is inspired by her grandmother to try to create things out of what's around her: building dolls out of leaves and flowers, constructing a tree house for her dolls and teaparties, building an awesome race car out of old boxes from the garage and watching clouds in the sky rather than TV. When a new girl moves in next door to Molly Lou, she's got a whole bunch of store-bought toys, but is astounded by Molly's inventiveness. Eventually Gertie makes her own homemade doll for Molly Lou, and it's clear the two of them are becoming friends. The text is perfectly wonderful. But here's the thing. The illustrations could have fallen to just anybody, and that story would have just been one of many good but not outstanding tales of imagination.I want to live in the worlds David Catrow creates. I'm not kidding. The wild color, the unbridled joy of mess and creation, the charming characters that are a brilliant mixture of Seuss and Berkely Breathed --and pure David Catrow. You love Molly from page one. She's the anti-Fancy Nancy. With a wild poof of hair (with a bow as an afterthought), wearing what appears to be a white labcoat, she sprawls on the floor of her amazing room. It's the room I'd have dreamed of having as a kid. There's a hatrack full of all sorts of costume hats, remote control robots and action figures, a bunny rabbit lamp, a mobile of planets even a ladder to climb up to her bed. Despite the coolness of the stuff in the room, it's still clear that Molly is rather bored with it all, until she remembers what her grandmother said.The next page is a delightful mess of a floor covered with scissors, glue duct tape, string and leaves. It's magnificent (though some parents may shudder). Every page is chock full of delightful details and whimsical world building that just makes this instant love for me. David Catrow captures not just the story, but the spirit of Molly. She not only takes her grandmother's advice, but does so in the wildest ways possible--very likely in ways her grandmother would never have expected. All of it is very wonderful.And then--there's something incredibly wonderfully sneaky about the book. I missed it until nearly the last page. My husband read it and missed it entirely until I went back and pointed it out. It's testament to a really great book that it features something like this so simply and casually brought into the pictures that you don't even register it!I wish I'd known about this book last year, but it somehow slipped under my radar. It's really truly worth looking at! less

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