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Stead, Philip C.

Amos McGee Misses the Bus

48 pp. | Roaring Brook | November, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-250-21322-8 $18.99
(2) PS Illustrated by Erin E. Stead. Amos McGee and his menagerie of zoo-animal pals (A Sick Day for Amos McGee, rev. 5/10) return for a second tale of steadfast interspecies friendship. After the sleep-deprived zookeeper misses the bus to work, forgets his lunch, and drops his hat, an afternoon at the beach is in jeopardy. The City Zoo's elephant, tortoise, penguin, rhinoceros, and owl come to Amos's aid, completing his work duties in entertaining fashion and locating his missing possessions (with help from a friendly neighborhood mouse and yellow bird). While echoing many of the narrative beats and visual idiosyncrasies of the Caldecott-winning original, this companion volume features a significant increase in double-page spreads--resulting in a deliberately paced narrative punctuated by slight variations across repeat settings. For example, a notable sequence of six sparely illustrated scenes, of the tortoise incrementally returning to the zoo with Amos's lost items, is equal parts humorous, heartwarming, and triumphant--thanks to the less-is-more text and canny layouts. A limited color palette is applied to detailed pencil drawings through a woodblock printing process, resulting in a pleasing woodgrain texture across all printed surfaces--from tree foliage to rhinoceros hide. A sweet conclusion finds Amos and the animals with time to catch the afternoon bus for the beach. An elegant and assured addition to the gentle world of Amos and his friends.
Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

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