What Really Happened to Humpty?

[from the files of a hard-boiled detective]

by Joe Dumpty as told to Jeanie Franz Ransom

Illustrated by Stephen Axelsen

(2009)

Kids will love the humor in this book.  It begins:  "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.  Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.  Humpty Dumpty was pushed." At least I think so.  Who am I? I'm Joe Dumpty, Humpty's younger brother. 

Joe, the P.I., goes on to explain his case as to why he thinks his brother was pushed off the wall and step-by-step the mystery of Humpty is solved. The book is a cross between a regular picture book and a comic book, using a whole slew of fairy tale characters to retell the story.  Groovy  Girl loved identifying her favorite fairy tale characters in a different light.  Low carb diets, power walks, binoculars and cell phones give this tale a modern, fresh snap.


 By the way...the culprits... Little Miss Muffet and the Big Bad Wolf -the wolf says "I'm bad. It's my middle name."  That pretty much says it all.  I can't wait to use this book when we talk about fairy tales.  This would be a perfect look at how to fracture the story and make it into something new.  We checked this out from the public library.

Jeanie Franz Ranson's website.
The Reading Tub review