4-8)Ī paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere. 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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