Dewey Bob

June 15, 2015
All grown up and newly out on his own, a hayseed raccoon named Dewey Bob Crockett sets out to build a life around his instincts for collecting and hoarding things. But even though Dewey Bob loves the thrill of the hunt—the sorting, the cleaning, and the turning of odds and ends into useful or fanciful contraptions (one of which fills a vertical gatefold)— he is lonely. Why not try to collect friends like he collects buttons? Reflecting, perhaps, the hodgepodge that is Dewey Bob’s natural element, Schachner’s (the Skippyjon Jones series) longwinded story is a jumble of voices and art styles. She drops her gs (albeit inconsistently), sprinkles her text with countrified turns of phrase (“I’m as clean as the beans are green!”), and liberally uses word bubbles to convey dialogue, poems, and songs that comment on the action, all to dizzying, distracting effect. Her artwork is more successful: with his tiny, earnest eyes, and huge head, Dewey is downright adorable, and Schachner’s skillful layering of watercolor and pencil textures with photo collage gives the story a homespun, scrapbooked feel. Ages 3–5.

August 15, 2015
The creator of Skippyjon Jones leaves behind, at least temporarily, her bestselling Siamese kitten's Frito Bandito-speak for pure corn pone in her new story of a little hoarder raccoon. As the book opens, young Dewey Bob sets out to find a home big enough for his burgeoning collections: of buttons, of experiences (stored in glass jars), and other stuff. Moving into a hollow tree, he immediately goes out "shopping" at the dump, where he fills his cart with a small mountain of oddments that he turns into a found-art sculpture. Lonely, he then moves on to collecting fireflies (he releases them), then maniacally tosses "every critter too slow to get out of his way" into his cart as potential friends. The "li'l rascal" is unfazed when everybody promptly bolts but for a kitten who can't leave due to injured hind legs, a condition Schachner forces readers to infer from the illustrations. This meandering and tendentiously cute story is crammed into 32 pages with little regard for story arc, transition, or coherence. Schachner's mixed-media illustrations are eye-catching, and Dewey Bob looks adorable, but they background a text that feels written around such self-consciously down-home declarations as "I'm a mean, clean, washin' machine!" Indeed, so committed is Dewey Bob to cleanliness that his habits yield the technically accurate but wildly incongruous simile "as clean as a bucketful of bleached bones." An undisciplined mess. (Picture book. 3-7)

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October 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 2-For a young raccoon, Dewey Bob has loads of character. Despite a plethora of hobbies and amusing predilections, from collecting buttons to being "as clean as the beans are green," and a knack for "decoratin'," Dewey Bob finds himself lonely when he strikes out on his own. Fortunately, his inventiveness comes in handy when he meets a kitten who can't walk, scoring him a friend. With fresh colors, handwritten lettering, and lush textures reminiscent of Melissa Sweet's work, the mixed-media illustrations fairly glow with endearing whimsy. Inspirational quotes and lively poems are integrated deftly into the images. However, the charm of the illustrations doesn't fully extend to the text. The story has a few too many ideas in it to fill out a traditional story arc, and the writing is a tad rambly. The down-home country dialect may delight listeners with its playful phrasing but may also pose challenges as a read-aloud. VERDICT This sweet, homespun (if rather long-winded) story will appeal to Schachner's many Skippyjon Jones fans and will introduce a new character to the canon.-Erin Reilly-Sanders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
A folksy narrator spins this tale about raccoon Dewey Bob Crockett, a collector in search of a friend. The accomplished mixed-media illustrations' collage elements look like pieces from Dewey's collections. Unfortunately, the homespun tone ("The little critter took to his wheels like a bear takes to bedroom slippers") grows tiresome and the story is too wordy.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)