Mudkin

by Stephen Gammell

Overview

"Rain's gone! Time to play!" commands the queen. Well, she's not really a queen—just an ordinary girl who has an extraordinary day. She meets Mudkin, a friendly creature who whips up a robe and crown for her. Away they go to meet Her Majesty's subjects. Even if the kingdom lasts only until the next rain shower, the crown Mudkin gives her is forever.

In his unmistakable style, Caldecott-winning artist Stephen Gammell creates an ode to the most potent of childhood mixtures: mud and imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467738057
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/28/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	42 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Stephen Gammell is the illustrator of numerous children's books, including the Caldecott Medal-winning Song and Dance Man and two Caldecott Honor books, The Relatives Came and Where the Buffaloes Begin. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife.

Editorial Reviews

"Mud holds a natural attraction for children it seems, and Gammell imaginatively plays off that premise with pages full of swirls and drips of brownish colors set against grays and blues of showery skies. As the story begins, a young unnamed heroine commandeers her stuffed animal playmates to come outside for a post-rainstorm romp. Before long, a splotch of mud catapults skyward, announcing the arrival of Mudkin, a brown, babylike creature whose head resembles a Hershey’s chocolate kiss. Naming the child his Queen, Mudkin invites her to play; soon she, too, is reveling in the wet dirt, wearing a mud cape and a crownlike pointy hat. What a day they have–complete with a carriage ride to a castle (mud-built, of course) and a welcome by a bevy of little Mudkins. When the returning rain washes Mudkin and her earthy costume away, the youngster gathers up her toy friends, the left-behind hat, and, with happy memories of a magical day, heads home. For Mudkin's few phrases, Gammell cleverly places mud splats for dialogue, nudging children into supplying their own interpretations. There's little text; the artist's energetic style and rain-splashed colors carry the story forward." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

During a respite from the rain, a young girl heads out to play. With toys in tow, she holds court until Mudkin, an imaginary mud-creature, appears to make her queen of his land. The boisterous critter, with its turnip head and troll-like body, speaks only in mud splotches and dresses her in mud robe and crown. Together they travel to an earthy kingdom, but rain soon depletes her carriage, castle, subjects and friend. Left with just her diadem, she returns to her toys, still queen of her own invention. Done in a chaotic '70s ink-drawn, freestyle aesthetic, Gammell's artwork is reminiscent of Ralph Steadman (Garibaldi's Biscuits, 2009, etc.), with its blotchy watercolors and masterful control of the legibility of the wash within messy shapes. However, the story itself is muddy and mired in a lack of clarity. In its essence, it's a wordless tale that would have been better served by remaining so. The beauty of Gammell's meticulously hand-lettered text and the integration of Mudkin's "language" requires better narrative execution than it receives here. While clearly extra care was put into the production of this title, from the metallic highlights on the cover to the brilliantly illustrated mud, the end result is unfortunately drowned in detail. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews