Maggie and the Ferocious Beast: The Big Scare - Hardcover

PreSchool-The technicolor friendly monster from The Ferocious Beast with the Polka-Dot Hide (Harcourt, 1996; o.p.) returns in another adventure. Here, he reveals his secret fear to his friends Maggie and Hamilton Hocks. After they reassure him by listing their various fears (ghosts, sea monsters, spaceships from other galaxies-none of which, they admit, they have ever seen), the Ferocious Beast admits his fear: mice. As his friends start laughing, the beast reminds them that he has at least seen the object of his fear. Coincidentally, a mouse appears on cue and the children start screaming. When the frightened rodent scampers off, they all have a good laugh at themselves. The one-note joke is not enough to carry the book, though it may get a laugh on the first reading. The bright cartoons, rendered in acrylics, create a primary-colored, almost-surreal world for the beast and his cohorts. The TV tie-in may be enough reason to purchase this book, though the story itself is insubstantial.
Kathleen M. Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, Eldersburg, MD
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Ferocious Beast, star of The Ferocious Beast with the Polka-Dot Hide, returns, in a silly bit of fluff that reads suspiciously like a made-for-television episode, perhaps not surprising given that the Beast is set to become a Nickelodeon regular this winter. Here, in what amounts to a group therapy session, he and his pals Maggie and Hamilton Hocks the pig 'fess up to their deepest fearsAsea monsters and goblins for Hamilton, ghosts and aliens for Maggie, mice for the Beast himselfA and discover that discussing what frightens them greatly diminishes their fears. "We did make you feel better and that's what good friends are for," says Maggie to the Beast in the end. The pedestrian prose falls short of Betty Paraskevas's previous texts (The Tangerine Bear, for example), and although Michael Paraskevas's color-saturated acrylics give the book a jolt of energy, even their humorous scenarios can't fully jump-start the predictable subject matter and trite scripting. This one is for devoted Beast fans only. Ages 2-6. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.