Red Ranger Came Calling

by Berkeley Breathed

Overview

Using glowing, hypnotic images and a funny, provocative text, the narrator relives his father's most amazing childhood Christmas. A moody young boy living with his aunt on an island, "Red" Breathed sees himself as the "Red Ranger from Mars", his hero from the movie serials, and cannot picture life without the gift of a Red Ranger bicycle. Red is far too "swanky a human being" to believe in Santa Claus, but nevertheless he pays a visit to the aged island hermit, Lord Sander Clos, rumored to be the legendary man himself, now living in lonely, joyless retirement. This meeting triggers an emotional response within the self-absorbed Red and leads to the most remarkable bicycle ever delivered on Christmas morning. This book represents Berkeley Breathed at the top of his form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316102490
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/01/1997
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.75(w) x 11.62(h) x 0.25(d)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Berkeley Breathed is a cartoonist, novelist, director, and screenwriter, best known for the popular comic strip "Bloom County." He has written and/or illustrated many books for young readers, including Red Ranger Came Calling, The Last Basselope, Goodnight Opus, and A Wish for Wings That Worked.

Editorial Reviews

For Breathed (A Wish for Wings That Work; Goodnight Opus), 'tis the season to be laugh-out-loud funny one page and cause a tiny tear to well in a reader's eye the next. Retelling the autobiographical story that his late father related every Christmas Eve, Breathed introduces a cynical young man (self-named The Red Ranger of Mars) who meets his match in a retired Santa (When Red snaps, ``They say you're Santa Claus,'' the old man retorts that Santa is ``a foolish story for small children. He's a big jolly bribe to control their criminal instincts''). Breathed's hallucinatory artwork is as wondrous and as unpredictable as his tale. Reaffirming a reader's belief in the spirit that is Santa, this could become a perennial seller. All ages. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly