Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #479290 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 40 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3--In a takeoff on Mission Impossible, cartoonist Rash sets up a clever plot for an alphabet book. The narrative begins before the title page when Agent A receives a message ordering him to find a bogus spy who does not use a word beginning with his or her initial. He sets off and makes his way through the list of agents, each of whom is described in a rhyming couplet ("Agent I is Incognito, posing as a large mosquito"). Some couplets scan better than others ("Agent C is Crawling up/the window using suction Cups"). "Agent N decodes a Note/to learn that it was one he wrote." "Agent W attacks/a spy she didn't know was Wax." However, the theme is fun and well executed. The humorous illustrations, drawn in ink and digitally colored, are filled with the stuff of spy thrillers: black backgrounds or frames, shadows, an overhead bulb casting a triangle of light in a dark office, and Agent A skulking around every corner. Small black smudges add texture. The spies themselves are especially ridiculous with their silly disguises, nutty kung-fu moves, and abundant mishaps. Youngsters may guess the surprise ending before this crazy caper concludes, but they'll definitely enjoy the mission.--Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community College, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
PreS-Gr. 2. An alphabet book starring secret agents? With the success of movies like Spy Kids, it was only a matter of time. In Rash's second offering after his picture-book debut, The Robots Are Coming (2000), 26 spies--one for each letter of the alphabet--slink through the pages, performing tasks determined by his or her initial. Agent I travels Incognito; Agent V wriggles through a Vent; and Agent A must find the Answer: Have any operatives been neglecting their assignments? The A-Z premise yields some very silly missions ("Agent Q concealed in Quiche / A roll of secret microfiche"), and Rash's bumbling, poker-faced spies all seem to hail from Inspector Gadget by way of The Simpsons. Pitch-black backgrounds sliced by intersecting planes of color provide an appropriately gritty backdrop for the agents' hilarious antics, like the judo moves that cause Agent J to lose a shoe. This hip, hard-boiled romp has plenty of appeal, even for big kids who already know their letters. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved