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Gladys Goes Out to Lunch Reviews
Gladys Goes Out to Lunch is available
at your local bookstore
or online
From
Kirkus Reviews
Gladys
is a gorilla (never mind that she's purple, for there is more
color on
these pages than a harlequin's Technicolor dream coat). Anderson's
ape has a weakness for bananas—morning, noon and night—and
her zookeepers always have great bunches at the ready. One
day a smell, a delicious waft, tickles her nose, her curiosity
and her appetite.
So Gladys goes out to lunch, much to the consternation of
her keepers. She follows the scent first to a pizzeria (tasty,
but not want she's
looking for), to a French cafe (fancy, but frog legs aren't
really gorilla fare), to an ice-cream stand (15 flavors,
all sampled), and
finally to the source, the pot of gold: a banana-bread food
cart. Like Gladys's bananas, Anderson's story is simple comfort
food, with eye-candy
artwork providing a welcome dash of spice. (Picture book.
3-6) Copyright ©2005
Kirkus Reviews
From
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr
2 - Gladys, a purple and blue gorilla, loves bananas for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner, but one day she smells something delicious and leaves
the zoo to find out what it is. As she follows her nose to a pizzeria,
a French cafe, and an ice-cream stand, she samples various foods, but
none of them matches the tantalizing aroma. Finally, she discovers
that it is coming from a cart at the zoo that is selling banana bread.
Done in bright acrylics, the vibrant cartoon illustrations show Gladys
progress out of her enclosure, past the zoo's front gate, through the
restaurants and city streets, and back home by way of the zoo's rear
entrance. She creates havoc all along the way, remaining totally oblivious
to the two keepers undergoing various adventures as they chase after
her. Large yellow bananas decorate the endpapers and add to the fun.
This humorous book will tickle children and could also fit well into
a unit on the five senses. A recipe for banana bread is appended. -Judith
Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA