Samuel Drew Hasn't a Clue

by Gabby Dawnay, Alex Barrow (Illustrator)

Overview

Join the animals as they follow Samuel Drew through the street and try to guess what’s inside the package he’s pulling behind him

Samuel Drew makes his way through the busy streets pulling a curious package behind him. But what could be inside? As all the animals try to guess, a wonderful parade begins to form, leading to a very special party.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849766425
Publisher:	Tate Publishing & Enterprises, L.L.C.
Publication date:	03/31/2020
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	11.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 18 Years

About the Author

Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow are an author-and-illustrator team based in London. Their previous books include A Possum’s Tailand London Calls!

Editorial Reviews

04/20/2020

“Samuel Drew strolls into sight” in a colorful mid-century cityscape, pulling “behind a splendid thing/ a giant parcel tied with string.” Channeling Madeline with dot eyes, a smart outfit, and an air of purposeful nonchalance, the child seems unconcerned with the contents. However, the package catches the attention of a flock of pigeons, a fox, a dog, a cat, and others, who follow Sam and muse upon the contents with excitement: “What’s in your parcel, Samuel Drew?/ We need to know! Give us a clue!” Barrow’s playfully unfussy drawings bolster Dawnay’s jaunty rhyming text—with each prediction, the haphazard (and hungry) crowd passes a parallel shop. The growing parade arrives at the park, where Sam has a birthday feast and opens the package, revealing an item that will be familiar to readers of a previous title by the collaborators, A Possum’s Tail. A gently energetic romp for the preschool set, inviting participation and perusal. Ages 3–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-01-12
The mystery box that young Samuel pulls behind him draws a growing queue of curious creatures in its wake. What's inside?

The blond, doll-like white urchin in floppy pants and a ribboned cap might not have a clue, but there are visual hints in every picture—as Dawnay rather unfairly waits until near the end to announce. Meanwhile, though, a speculative flock of pigeons, a fox, and other animals fall in behind Samuel, and the suspense heightens thanks to a deft and rhythmic narrative: "A pigeon spies it from a tree, / ‘Hey, what's in there? Do let me see!' / The paper package bumps and shakes, / The pigeon cries, ‘Could it be…cakes…?' " Samuel trundles the carton past a row of shops, into a park, and finally up to his birthday picnic. There, ta-da!—its contents are revealed at last to be the wooden toy pooch he had unflappably wheeled through a previous appearance in A Possum's Tail (2014). Barrow's informally drawn illustrations add considerable charm and subtext to the trek, as Samuel passes mixed-race and same-sex couples at cafe tables, a news vendor in a turban, and shopkeepers and pedestrians of diverse skin color…all clad in antique, mid-20th-century styles.

Young audiences will be drawn along, eager to chime in with their own guesses. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews