Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | FEIFFER | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
"Raymond, I want you!" Just when Raymond is in the middle of a comic book, his mother calls him. Not once but five times. "It's not fair!" Raymond thinks. Then he thinks: "What if I had my own MEANWHILE...'" Comic books always use MEANWHILE... to change the scene. So Raymond tries writing it on the wall behind his bed.
To his astonishment, Raymond discovers that he can MEANWHILE...from one perilous adventure to another'from pirates on the high seas, to Martians in outer space, to a posse and a mountain lion out West. Then, at the worst possible moment, Raymond's MEANWHILE... fails him, leaving him in a spot that spells certain doom! Unless . . .
'Raymond, I want you!' Raymond is reading a comic book when his mother calls him, not once but five times! 'It's not fair!' Raymond thinks. Then: 'What if I had my own MEANWHILE . . . ?' Comic books always use MEANWHILE . . . to change the scene. So Raymond tries writing it on the wall behind his bed.To his astonishment, Raymond discovers that he can MEANWHILE . . . from one perilous adventure to another--from pirates on the high seas, to Martians in outer space, to a posse and a mountain lion out West. Then, at the worst possible moment, Raymond's MEANWHILE . . . fails him, leaving him in a spot that spells certain doom! Unless . . .
Author Notes
Jules Feiffer was born on January 26, 1929. While working as a cartoonist, his work appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy, The Nation, and The New York Times. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartooning in The Village Voice in 1986. His other awards include a George Polk Award for his cartoons; an Obie Award for the play Little Murders; an Oscar for the anti-military short subject animation, Munro; and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Writers Guild of America and the National Cartoonist Society.
He is currently focusing on writing and illustrating books for children and young adults including The Man in the Ceiling, A Room with a Zoo and Bark, George! He has been a professor at the Yale School of Drama, Northwestern University, Dartmouth, and Stony Brook Southampton College.
Feiffer has been honored with major retrospectives at the New York Historical Society, the Library of Congress and The School of Visual Arts.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3This nonsensical story gives new meaning to the phrase "absorbed in a book." When Raymond's mom calls him, he ignores her, engrossed in his comic book. As she becomes more insistent, the boy notices a boxed word in the middle of the page: MEANWHILE.... If comic books can use a word to change scenes, why can't he? Raymond writes the word on the wall and is instantly transported to a pirate ship where he is forced to walk the plank. Escaping by writing the magic word with a quill provided by the maiden he rescues, he appears in the old West, where he escapes from a posse and a ferocious mountain lion; and outer space, where he survives an attack by an evil, two-headed Martian. He begins switching back and forth among the three desperate situations, always finding it more difficult to escape. Finally, he is hurtling through space straight into his own roof. Readers will laugh at his inventive solution, not to mention his change of heart toward his still-irate mother. Repeated phrases add humor to the story and invite participation. The revolving plots lend energy and a kid-appealing pace and keep the art exciting. Each scene takes on a completely new palette, giving children the sense of being immersed in new environments along with Raymond. Bold boxes and dialogue balloons give the story the look of a comic book. Frantic action and the clever theme make this a great read-aloud.Lisa S. Murphy, formerly at Dauphin County Library System, Harrisburg, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The hero of this brisk adventure takes his cue from a cartoonist who signals a scene change by using the word "Meanwhile..." and decides to use it himself to escape to alternate realities. At first, Raymond writes "Meanwhile..." on his bedroom wall to escape his yelling mother. Instantly, "Raymond was on a pirate ship on the high seas. Unbelievable! He had Meanwhiled...!" When the pirates capture him, Raymond scrawls the magic word on the gangplank and transfers to the Wild West. Pursued by a posse and cornered by a cougar ("Hey! I'm a good guy! This isn't even my mask!"), he makes a third leap, this time to a spacecraft under Martian attack. Like any comic-book character, he eventually must return to and resolve each crisis. Cartoonist Feiffer (The Man in the Ceiling) handles the tale with dexterity, heightening the pace until Raymond desperately shouts, "The End!" Anxiety builds and humor abounds in rectangular comic panels, with horizontal pictures shifting to vertical as Raymond reaches the end of the pirate ship's plank or rides deep in a canyon, mountain lion poised above him. Young fans will hope the closing picture of Raymond (disposing of his once-prized comic books) doesn't signal the end to his adrenaline-packed foray into fiction. All ages. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Fiction: PB As any comic book aficionado knows, [cf2]meanwhile[cf1] is a useful stock term allowing for a quick change of scene so that the hero can escape from a dire predicament. Raymond, tired of his mother's commands, scrawls the word [cf2]meanwhile[cf1] on his bedroom wall. The results are instantaneous and unexpected, and Raymond escapes from one dilemma into another in action-packed half-page scenes of the high seas, the Wild West, and outer space. Horn Rating: Superior, well above average. Reviewed by: mmb (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Ignoring his mother's increasingly irritated summonses, and noting that a boxed ``meanwhile'' in his comic books always signals a change of scene, Raymond tries writing the word on his bedroom wall--and drops into an exciting pirate adventure. Forced to walk the plank, he uses the trick again, and this time he's being chased by a posse. Things begin to spiral out of control; in the next ``meanwhile,'' his spacecraft is blown apart by Martians, then he's back on the plank, then facing a cougar . . . where will it end? Excitedly, he shouts, ``THE END!'' and then hurries out of his room to do whatever his mother bids. Feiffer (A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears, 1995, etc.) uses a watercolor comic-strip style for the illustrations, which are more simply drawn than his cartoons for adults; with few large panels per page, Raymond has ample space to express pop-eyed dismay in the face of flying bullets, toothy sharks, and other menaces. Children will chortle. (Picture book. 6-8)
Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4, younger for lap sharing. When Mother calls, Raymond is deep in his comic book. Procrastinator that he is, he hopes she'll forget she called. But when she doesn't, he tries a solution in keeping with his favorite pastime: "It was a word comics always use to change the scene. MEANWHILE." And when he scrawls it on his wall, he's transported--first to a pirate ship, where he's made to walk the plank; next to the Wild West, where he's chased by a posse; and finally into outer space, where his ship is blown apart by Martians. And each time his situation seems hopeless, he uses the word to save the day--till the magic finally runs out and he must resort to even more forceful comic-book jargon: "The End." Little ones will appreciate Feiffer's funny, freewheeling, action-packed artwork, which is cleverly laid out in comic-book fashion, complete with thought balloons. But it will be older kids who will really get the most out of this comic book put-on. They'll be the ones best equipped to spot the irony and appreciate the wit and the careful interplay between fantasy and reality; they'll also be the ones who sense the resemblance between Raymond's adventures and the escapades related in the syndicated strip "Calvin and Hobbes." --Stephanie Zvirin