SLOAN & PHILAMINA: Or How to Make Friends With Your Lunch

by Patti Stren ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 17, 1979

Ant Philamina wins anteater Sloan by telling him elephant jokes when he plans to eat her, and soon the two have moved in together, happy as clams until Sloan's relatives see them together and find the relationship a scandal. Philamina is naturally apprehensive when Sloan decides to invite both his and her friends and relatives to his birthday party, and all the little speech balloons in Stren's busy party scenes reveal that the other ants are scared stiff. ""You sure are a terrific host, Sloan,"" exult his relatives when they arrive to find what they believe to be dessert bunched up quaking in a corner. But again Philamina breaks the ice with her elephant jokes, and before long everyone is laughing, singing, and dancing the tango. While kids enjoy the elephant jokes grownups might or might not be amused by Stren's throw-away allusions to ERA, Grossingers, Henry Higgins, and Philamina's Cousin Ramona who has a Ph.D. in philosophy but drives a taxi in New York. As in Hug Me (1977), Stren is still into being cute for grownups at the expense of getting in touch with children--but her offbeat doodles and quips can be funny. The publishers give this the usual picture-book-age designation, but we'd tend to try it out on hip readers-alone who can scan all the little asides and pick up on some of the references. (For Canadians like the author, Philamina's Aunti Gnish should go over.)

Pub Date: April 17, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Unicorn/Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979

Categories: CHILDREN'S