Toby Tucker: Dodging the Donkey Doo (Toby Tucker) - Softcover

Val Wilding was a teacher for 20 years and now manages a school library. She has written more than 30 books, including Diggers and Dumpers and Real Princesses. Michael Broad is the illustrator of Broken Bird.

Grade 3–6—Toby Tucker was found in an orphanage with no identification save a large chest filled with mysterious scraps of paper. When he moves in with his new foster parents, he discovers that by matching the scraps together he can travel back in time, hoping to find out "when" he came from. In Donkey Doo, he is transported to ancient Greece; in Pig Swill, he journeys to World War II London. Sneaky Secrets takes him to ancient Egypt, where he learns to make mummies. All three narratives are dragged down by descriptions of everyday activities, e.g., rather than create spectacular drama in the midst of wartime London, Wilding gets caught up in the details of Cub Scouts, salvaging, and fire drills. This might be okay if the books had great character development, but it is lacking as well. The endings are predictable; one could read the first and last 20 pages of each title and have a crystal-clear idea of what happened. The books are filled with Briticisms that will be unfamiliar to most kids. The black-and-white cartoon drawings are serviceable but don't do much to enhance the stories. These titles are not compelling enough for reluctant readers and will bore the more experienced. Recommend Jon Scieszka's "Time Warp Trio" (HarperCollins) instead.—Laura Lutz, Queens Borough Public Library, NY
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