Mrs. Noodlekugel. Daniel Pinkwater. Illustrated by Adam Stower. 2012. 80 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: A tall building, with one apartment stacked on top of another — that is where Nick and Maxine came to live with their parents. They had not lived there very long when Maxine said to Nick, “Come to my room. I have discovered something.”
Premise/plot: Nick and Maxine, our hero and heroine, discover a delightful friend and potential babysitter in the eccentric next door neighbor, Mrs. Noodlekugel. What few adventures we have are certainly odd, unusual, whimsical, peculiar. For example, making cookies WITH mice and FOR mice.
“Now we will put the cookies in the oven,” Mrs. Noodlekugel said. “Before we light the oven, we will count the mice to make sure no mouse has fallen asleep on the cookie sheet.” “Has that ever happened?” Maxine asked. “No, because we count,” Mrs. Noodlekugel said.
My thoughts: Apparently I read this one in 2012 and gave it one star. I completely forgot having read this one previously, and so when it showed up as a free book on kindle I downloaded it. I don't know if my mood was just completely different the second time around, or, if my reading tastes have changed through the years--but I wouldn't rate it one star now. I'm not sure I'd go over three stars. But it's not *that* bad. I mean, it's no Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. And there aren't that many adventures to be had in this one short book. It's all set up for further adventures. If the other books in the series are ever free, I'd definitely consider reading them as well.
© 2020 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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