TRACTION MAN IS HERE!

Traction Man is ready for anything—but can he overcome the gift of an all-in-one knitted green romper suit with matching bonnet? Traction Man is most definitely an action figure, NOT a doll: His accessories include a sub-aqua suit, a space suit, a warfare shirt and a deep-sea diving suit. As narrated by the little boy who receives him for Christmas, his life is one adventure after another, but Granny’s gift of the odious all-in-one knitted green romper suit with matching bonnet is almost too much for this doughty hero, until faithful companion Scrubbing Brush leads him to an ingenious solution. The intentionally overwrought voice-over is just exactly right, as are the comic-book style panels and the impossibly square-jawed hero. Occasional full-bleed spreads place Traction Man in his context with his owner (and parental admonishments occasionally and appropriately intrude), but for the most part, he and Scrubbing Brush are allowed the liberty to develop fully in their own right, their owner’s imagination giving them all the life their readers will want. An absolutely, hilariously, dead-on perfect celebration of the relationship between child and toy. (Picture book. 5-8)