DODSWORTH IN NEW YORK

Egan brings back characters from Friday Night at Hodges’ Café (1994) and The Pink Refrigerator (April 2007) for a typically tongue-in-cheek outing. Dapper, formerly sedentary mouse Dodsworth sets off for Paris on a solo (he thinks) adventure, which is temporarily derailed by the discovery that Hodges’s willful pet duck has stowed away in his suitcase. First stop: New York, where the duck escapes before the annoyed traveler can put him on a return train. The ensuing merry chase takes the pair from Coney Island to Yankee Stadium, with stops at Radio City Music Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and several like locales. Egan depicts generic street scenes rather than recognizable landmarks in his small cartoon illustrations, but like James Marshall before him, gets an amazing amount of expression out of simply drawn body language and minimal facial features. Also like Marshall, his tale is driven more by character than theme, place or, for that matter, plot. In the end, the duck leads Dodsworth aboard a ship bound for, you guessed it, Paris—so, will further adventures ensue? Stay tuned. (Easy reader. 6-8)