School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Some stories about kids and grandparents are all sweetness and light. Not this one. This boy's grandpa "yells at the newspaper. He yells at the TV. He even yells at his own dog." Visiting him for two weeks is a trial, at least until the two go fishing and an unanticipated dip in the pond shows that laughter can sometimes cure even the grouchiest relative. Remembering what young boys are like helps, too. MacDonald's wonderful watercolors have his typical '50s look, and include comic scenes such as false teeth left to bite anyone who might sit on a hassock and the boy innocently driving his toy trucks off the back of the couch right onto sleeping Grandpa's head. The pictures are a great match for the text, where the modern elements sit comfortably alongside the old-fashioned ones. Children will enjoy the idea of old folks learning from young ones.-Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The boy who narrates Henson's (The Book Woman) story shudders at his grandfather's gruff temper and false teeth, and draws rude caricatures of a cross-eyed, flushed bald man. "Mom gets mad, but it's true," he insists. "Grumpy Grandpa is always grumpy. And he's scary, too." The boy and his parents visit Grandpa's farm, which is "really quiet" except for Grumpy Grandpa's snoring or yelling. And, each day, Grumpy Grandpa and his dog "disappear" in an old-fashioned pickup truck: "You'd think the dog would need a break, but he sticks to Grumpy Grandpa like glue." Although the narrative is told from the boy's perspective, the illustrations reveal more to the story. After the grandfather overhears his grandson's complaints, he takes the boy along to his getaway, his childhood fishing hole. MacDonald (Bye-bye, Crib) pictures a quaint and ruddy middle-American group, the women in skirts and the men in overalls (they even serve heaping plates of flapjacks). If the setting is anachronistic, the theme is perennial and wishful: misanthropes can forget "what it was like to be little" and moody relatives might be worth getting to know. Ages 4-8. (July) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.