Hungry Roscoe

by David J. Plant

Overview

Roscoe is a hungry raccoon fed up with eating rotten junk out of the bins. What he wouldn't give for a lovely bit of fish or some fresh, juicy fruit —and where better to find food than at the zoo! An excellent idea, except for the grumpy zookeeper who's intent on keeping Roscoe OUT. But Roscoe's come up with a plan to disguise himself as a zoo animal. . . . What could go wrong?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781909263536
Publisher:	Nobrow Ltd.
Publication date:	06/09/2015
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD590L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

David J Plant was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Cyprus, and now lives in Bristol, United Kingdom. He studied illustration at Falmouth University, United Kingdom.

Editorial Reviews

In this debut picture book, Plant pours on the charm, with retro-looking sorbet-colored art and a perfectly paced story.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

04/13/2015
Tired of subsisting on society’s scraps, a raccoon named Roscoe tries to sneak into the local zoo, where the animals “get fresh food every day.” Unfortunately, the surly zookeeper isn’t making that easy—in a pair of scenes of Looney Tunes–style cartoon violence, the zookeeper punts Roscoe out of the zoo with a “Bop!” and a “Biff!” (Readers may wonder why a man who kicks raccoons is employed at a zoo to begin with.) Rendered in a pastel palette, debut talent Plant’s mischievous scenes recall zoo tales like Peggy Rathmann’s Good Night Gorilla, especially as Roscoe disguises himself to snag food (his penguin costume, which involves an ice-cream cone beak and a dirty blue jacket, leaves the actual penguins staring agog at him). It’s the zoo’s broadly grinning monkeys who finally come to Roscoe’s aid, offering him some food in exchange for the zookeeper’s keys. Suffice it to say, the zookeeper gets his just deserts: “What followed was not pretty,” deadpans Plant as bats, parrots, and a tiger terrorize zoogoers. Mild monkeyshines. Ages 3–7. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"In this debut picture book, Plant pours on the charm, with retro-looking sorbet-colored art and a perfectly paced story."
—The The New York Times

"Done in a retro style with flatly applied, low-contrast colors, the cartoon illustrations are well-stocked with active, comically expressive figures. The narrative's poker-faced tone (" ‘That's not for pests like you!' growled the zookeeper. He was not a good-tempered man") adds a similarly antique flavor."
—Kirkus Reviews

The subdued color palette and uncomplicated illustrations lend a vintage to the page, but this thoroughly modern story is utterly charming and will delight young readers.
—Summer Hayes, Booklist

From the Publisher

06/01/2015
K-Gr 2—Roscoe the raccoon is hungry for real food, and the zoo is an excellent place to find it, if only he can sneak past the zookeeper who becomes more enraged with each of Roscoe's attempts at acquiring the other animals' food. Fans of action-packed, amusing tales are sure to enjoy Roscoe's risky deeds. A muted palette of limited colors along with human characters reminiscent of old-fashioned cartoons impart a retro 50s look. Plant's hand-drawn sketches are layered and finalized in Photoshop, yet they offer the same quality as pencil and chalk drawings. From the cover image to the final endpapers, Roscoe's story is delectable. VERDICT This work has a classical old-fashioned appeal that will delight children of today.—Gaye Hinchliff, King County Library System, WA

School Library Journal

2015-04-01
Persistence pays off for an urban raccoon determined to upgrade his garbage-based diet. Weary of scrounging "rotten junk" from rubbish bins and hearing that the animals in the nearby zoo get fresh food every day, Roscoe tries to sneak in: first disguised as a tortoise beneath a green umbrella, then as a penguin with a pointy ice cream cone for a beak. Unsurprisingly, neither silly disguise fools the surly zookeeper. Finally, at the monkeys' invitation, he steals the zookeeper's keys to join them in their cage—whereupon they leave him chowing down and scamper off to set all the animals free. Chaos ensues. Done in a retro style with flatly applied, low-contrast colors, the cartoon illustrations are well-stocked with active, comically expressive figures. The narrative's poker-faced tone (" ‘That's not for pests like you!' growled the zookeeper. He was not a good-tempered man") adds a similarly antique flavor. The locale isn't specified beyond "a park in the middle of a big city," but some of the skyscrapers visible beyond the zoo's low walls may look familiar to young New Yorkers. In any case, at day's end Roscoe generously offers the last banana in the bucket to the frazzled zookeeper and saunters off with a belch. A droll episode, with any lesson or moral beyond, maybe, "try, try again" absent or well-buried. (Picture book. 5-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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