TWITCHTOE, THE BEASTFINDER

by William Van Horn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 1978

Van Horn's nutty Harry Hoyle and the Giant Jumping Bean (p. 241, J-53) had a recognizable foible and a sense of frame-by-frame progression going for it, but the humor here is confined to such incidentals as the names of the beasts--Bushy-chopped Whiskwottle, Backsliding Fangdipper--that Victor Twitchtoe specializes in finding for the town of Quite Enough. And though Van Horn's sketchy cartoons are still full of easy motion--typically, Victor being blown through the air by the rumbling blasts of a troublesome Snort--here their narrative continuity is minimal. The story concerns Victor's unsuccessful attempts to catch the unseen beast, who has amused himself blowing off chimneys and otherwise busting up the village. It ends with a compromise (the Snort will confine its snorting to one week a year), as suggested to Twitchtoe by an unnamed ""little creature."" And adds up to a lot of flying feathers without much skeletal support.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1978

Categories: CHILDREN'S