MR. BLEWITT’S NOSE

When helpful young Primrose Pumpkin finds a human nose on a park bench—“something you rarely see on an average street in a normal town on a humdrum sort of day. At least, not on its own”—she naturally sets out to find its careless owner. Her quest is complicated by the fact that her dog Dirk stinks—and, in the bright, daubed acrylic illustrations, often looks—like a fresh pile of dung, because everyone the pair meets immediately staggers away. Ultimately, though, it’s Dirk who facilitates the reunion of nose and noggin, by clearing a stadium full of spectators, except for the olfactory-oblivious Blewitt. Though the vagrant schnoz recalls such tales as Saxton Freymann’s Dr. Pompo’s Nose (2000) and the Gennady Spirin–illustrated version of Gogol’s absurdist The Nose (1993), this is more likely to draw its most appreciative audience from the clouds of fanning fans surrounding Lisa Kopelke’s Excuse Me! (2003) or William Kotzwinkle’s and Glenn Murray’s Walter the Farting Dog (2001). (Picture book. 6-8)