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Summary
Summary
The Town of Left and the Town of Right are separated by a dotted yellow line, and no one on either sidecan remember how things got to be this way! One day, an unlucky citizen crosses the line, forcing theOrder of the Ambidextrous Knights guarding the border to take action. Unfortunately, the only ammunitionthey have around is marshmallowsÂ50,000 boxes worth! So begins the Marshmallow Incident, a tale ofLeft and Right, and Right and Wrong, with an incredibly silly but delicious dose of Marsh-Pillows andCloud-Clumps thrown in. This hilarious read-aloud will leave kids laughing out loud and begging fors'more!
Summary
The Town of Left and the Town of Right are separated by a dotted yellow line, and no one on either sidecan remember how things got to be this way! One day, an unlucky citizen crosses the line, forcing theOrder of the Ambidextrous Knights guarding the border to take action. Unfortunately, the only ammunitionthey have around is marshmallows--50,000 boxes worth! So begins the Marshmallow Incident, a tale ofLeft and Right, and Right and Wrong, with an incredibly silly but delicious dose of Marsh-Pillows andCloud-Clumps thrown in. This hilarious read-aloud will leave kids laughing out loud and begging fors'more!
Author Notes
Judi Baret, who takes her marshmallows crispy on the outside and squishy inside, is the author of numerous picture books, including the classic bestsellers Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, soon to be a major motion picture, and its sequel, Pickles to Pittsburgh. She lives in Connecticut and Brooklyn, New York, where she also teaches art to kindergartners.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The rival towns of Left and Right provide the fanciful medieval setting of this middling fable by the creators of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Recalling etchings, Ron Barrett's pen-and-ink art humorously depicts the towns' separatist stances ("We proudly serve leftovers" announces a sign at Lefty's restaurant, while the words on Right's clock tower, which displays only the right side of the clock face, boasts "Always the Right Time"). Mayhem erupts when someone inadvertently does the unthinkable and crosses the dotted yellow line separating the two towns. Armor-clad members of the Order of the Ambidextrous Knights of the Dotted Yellow Line begin firing the only ammunition they have: thousands of marshmallows. A knight finally "realized how silly the whole thing was" and suggests that the divisive line between the towns be wiped out, which ends the marshmallow attack-and the longstanding enmity. Many of the tale's particulars are silly indeed, and the message about respecting differences ends up getting buried beneath the fluff. Ages 3-8. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
The Town of Left and the Town of Right, so named because the people are left-handed or right-handed, are neighbors but separated by a bright yellow dotted line. The Order of the Ambidextrous Knights of the Dotted Yellow Line guard and maintain the line and the thousands of boxes of marshmallows that one of the knights won in a poetry contest. All is orderly until the day a Right man accidentally crosses the line trying to corral some kids. It's instant war! The ammunition? Marshmallows, of course. Other stories of towns at war for silly reasons exist but few with a device as clever (or as sticky) as marshmallows; only the Barretts of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (1978) fame could create such a goofy, gooey, improbable premise. Digitally colored pen-and-ink drawings use straight lines and cross-hatching to add texture and plenty of visual puns. Delicious absurdity bound to have a long shelf life. S'more, please.--Cummins, Julie Copyright 2009 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Two towns are divided by a dotted yellow line. On one side is Left, where all the left-handed people reside. On the other.well, I'm sure you get the idea. For untold generations, nobody crossed from one town to the other, and the boundary was guarded by the Order of Ambidextrous Knights. Then someone from Right stumbled over the line. What chaos! What outrage! The knights began shooting-but the only ammunition they could find was their vast supply of marshmallows. As the countryside filled with fluffy white sweets, the citizens' thoughts also became fluffier and a decision was reached to eradicate the line. Peace and feasting (and, presumably, sugar shock) ensued. This is a moderately interesting, if not scintillating, fable. The moral of the tale and the marshmallows appear to have been accidentally thrown into the same book. The text might well sink under a surplus of words. But Ron Barrett's illustrations keep the book afloat with funny, and punny, details. While The Marshmallow Incident probably won't be first on everyone's reading list, some of the notions-and most of the illustrations-will raise a smile, for all the right (and left) reasons.-Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Timed to coincide with the release of the film of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, this unrelated tale from the Barretts is a wan fable about Getting Along, enlivened with a little pale silliness. The medieval-ish towns of Left and Right (inhabited by persons of the corresponding handedness) are close to each other but separated by a dotted yellow line guarded by the Order of the Ambidextrous Knights of the Dotted Yellow Linewhich, thanks to a poetic member of the order, has in its castle 50,000 boxes of marshmallows won some years earlier in a contest. When a hapless resident of Right accidentally falls over the line, the Knights let loose with volleys of marshmallows "until one of the knights realize[s] how silly the whole thing [is]" and the people of Left and Right decide to erase the line and live happily ever after in peace, harmony and marshmallows. The overlong text never really gets past its vaguely Monty Pythonesque premise, making it an insufficiently daffy, one-joke Lesson in Cooperation rather than the full-on goof-fest that made the Barretts' earlier book such a favorite. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
