Susan Chandler is originally from Southampton but moved to London to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has written many children's books, including Vegetable Glue, Ingenious Jean, The Nutcracker, Who's in the Zoo and Mrs Gobbledygook. The limits of Susan's imagination are not known but few would dare venture to the edge of it. She works at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and from the outside is a completely normal person. Delphine Durand was born in Dijon, France but grew up between Senegal and La Puisaye, before moving once again to Montpellier, where she lived as a teenager. For the last twelve years she has worked as an illustrator in Marseile, and has only recently moved to work in Paris. Delphine studied Art in Strasbourg and has won many awards for her celebrated art style and wonderful sense of humour.

About the Author

Susan Chandler is originally from Southampton but moved to London to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has written many children's books, including Vegetable Glue, Ingenious Jean, The Nutcracker, Who's in the Zoo and Mrs Gobbledygook. The limits of Susan's imagination are not known but few would dare venture to the edge of it. She works at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and from the outside is a completely normal person. Delphine Durand was born in Dijon, France but grew up between Senegal and La Puisaye, before moving once again to Montpellier, where she lived as a teenager. For the last twelve years she has worked as an illustrator in Marseile, and has only recently moved to work in Paris. Delphine studied Art in Strasbourg and has won many awards for her celebrated art style and wonderful sense of humour.

Reviews

The town of Cuckooville has, as one might reasonably expect, a prominent cuckoo clock, but since there's no cuckoo bird inside, the citizens take turns climbing up to announce the time each hour. No one loves playing cuckoo more than Mrs. Gobbledygook, who has a red beehive hairdo and regularly shouts inexplicable phrases like "Lumpyplums snufflybapz," confounding her fellow townspeople. Rejected and dejected, Mrs. Gobbledygook gets a chance to shine when a busload of redheaded tourists (who look suspiciously like Mrs. Gobbledy- gook herself) come to town. The townspeople panic-" 'Strangers!' yelped the Baker, lobbing buns in the air. 'Aliens!' boomed the Butcher, chucking his chops in a fluster"-but the red-haired heroine is able to communicate with the newcomers just fine. Cuckooville is an odd town (the town's chaotic reaction to the arrival of tourists makes little sense), and Durand's (Al Pha's Bet) cartoons create an appropriate atmosphere of inanity and goofiness amid the frazzled, wide-eyed citizenry. While the jumble of nonsense words make for a fun read-aloud, the point of Chandler's (What I Do with Vegetable Glue) story remains murky. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.