Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom

My 9 year old son finished this book today and for the first time ever, he came to me and said when I can I get the next book. My son does not like to read for pleasure. He has dyslexia and reading is not how he likes to spend his free time. We encourage him to read for 15-30 minutes a day. He started this book at the beginning of the week and could not wait to get to it everyday. I am so happy to see him enjoy reading. Thanks for a great book.

Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom is a real find - perfect book for that emergent/reluctant boy reader. It's a graphic novel / chapter book hybrid aimed at early readers - I'd recommend it for a slightly younger crowd than the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books by Jeff Kinney or the Dodger and Me series by Jordan Sonnenblick. The publisher's recommended age range, and I agree, is 7 to 10. Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom is fast-paced, funny, and kid friendly, with a nice merging of text chapters and comic sequences. This is one that all libraries should add to their arsenal.

I nearly didn't get to review Eric Wight's Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom. When it arrived in the mail, my son, a voracious reader of both chapter books and comics, pounced on it, read it from cover to cover immediately and then refused to hand it over. He wanted to take it to school; he wanted to read it again; he wanted to have it on his shelf in his room. He kept relating parts of it, repeating bits of dialogue. And he put the next installment in the Frankie Pickle series--Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000--on his Christmas list. (I do discourage Christmas lists in June, but he's unstoppable. He also expects Santa to produce a super sonic car and a mind-operated Wii controller, so a book not due out until February is the most realistc item on his list.) Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom is a hybrid, part comic book, part chapter book. Frankie has one of those "active" imaginations, and when he finds himself playing the role of an Indiana Jones style adventurer or a city-protecting superhero--always accompanied by his sidekick, Argyle the Westie Terrier--his adventures are related in comic book form. When he's Frankie Piccolini, a regular kid dealing with a regular kid's problems (an obnoxiously sporty older sister, a needy baby sister, and a fantastically messy room) the story is related in chapter book prose. The boy (or girl) who slips easily into daydream fantasies is classic material for children's literature, and similar techniques have been used in both film and literature. What's surprising here is how well the hybrid form works to relate the inner workings of Frankie's mind. Despite bouncing between comic s and prose, fantasy and reality, the story progresses seamlessly. The prose in the chapter book portions is punchy, comedic and fastmoving. And the illustrations bleed out of the comics to invade the prose chapters. At the same time, elements from reality slip into Frankie's comic book fantasies, and all the moving parts mesh together around Frankie's one central problem. Frankie Pickle is also a wonderful tribute to both contemporary graphic novels and classic comic books. The drawings, with simple, bold figures, are nonetheless cinematically framed, with establishing shots, point-of-view frames and evoctive camera angles, giving the art in Frankie Pickle a certain sophistication. At the same time Frankie Pickle, with its fast pace and goofy puns, reminds me of the classic comics from my childhood . It even incorporates "extra features" including a two page tutorial on how to draw Frankie and Argyle and a four page Franke Pickle bonus comic. Let's not forget to mention how attractive Frankie Pickle may look to educators eager to convert new readers. For my son, who loves reading, Frankie Pickle was simply an extra delectable treat. But it's comic book elements could be a big draw for reluctant readers as well, perhaps providing just the ticket to the marvelously rich and delightful world of literature. Originally

Every child should have a copy of this wonderful book. Frankie is such a delightful and charming character. You can't help but love him and his family.

Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom Frankie Pickle leads a life of unending adventure and excitement. He's a daring archeologist, a heroic superhero, a brilliant surgeon, and more. At least, that's what his life is like in his imagination. In real life, Frankie's mom won't stop bugging him to clean up his room. Until one day, she tells him that he never has to clean his room again ... as long as he's prepared for the consequences. Now Frankie is on Cloud Swine. He can make as big a mess in his room as he wants, and soon he's not bothering with clean clothes or even bathing. But when the chaos in his room spirals out of control, can even the heroic Frankie Pickle find a way to stop it? Closet of Doom is presented in a unique fashion, as a chapter book integrated with a graphic novel, and the story switches back and forth seamlessly between the two formats. This unusual structure can serve three functions for young readers. The first is to introduce early readers to comic books. This is not as simple a task as it sounds, since storytelling through sequential art has its own conventions (for example, how emotions like surprise are shown) and these are not always intuitively obvious to new readers. Second, the graphic novel portions can serve as a "bridge" between text chapters, allowing children who have not yet mastered reading to follow part of the plot assisted by the context of visual storytelling. Finally, this same process can work in reverse, enticing a child who may be comfortable with comic books to begin to tackle the greater developmental challenge of reading chapter books. The story of Closet of Doom may seem simplistic, but its message is far from trivial. Learning to keep one's living space clean and ordered, with "a place for everything and everything in its place", can be especially challenging for young children. This is made harder by the fact that so few adults have learned this same lesson, and that many of us were raised by children of the Depression who never threw anything away. Learning to deal with all of your "stuff" is an essential coping skill for modern life but also one that most parents are ill-equipped to teach. And while lessons like these are very important for young people to learn, they are also the same lessons that they are the most resistant to learning when being lectured at by adults. Closet of Doom harnesses the power of storytelling to immerse children in an enjoyable tale where they can figure out this lesson for themselves. Frankie's deal with his mom is the center of this story, but his dad features prominently in the book as well. Frankie's dad is man of many talents who can repair a car or an action figure, but who can also whip up a batch of waffles or freshly-baked cookies. It's nice to see a dad who is not a stereotype - in either direction - and being capable of taking on any role around the house is a necessity for many real-life dads in single dad or two dad households. Cl