Synopses & Reviews
Everybody loves a yard sale, even in sleepy Spudville. On a bright spring day, the whole town turns out for Mr. Flotsam's great deals, and they all go home happy. But the next morning, Mr. Flotsam's neighbors learn they've gotten a lot more than they bargained for. The Zings' new carpet flies away with their son, Mrs. Applebee's new phone rings off the hook with calls from the beyond, and the seeds Mr. Twitchett plants in his garden keep growing... and growing... and growing ...The whole neighborhood is up in arms! But gradually the townspeople begin to appreciate their quirky purchases--and turn their exasperation into a party that lasts all year... until the next yard sale! A fun, fanciful story plus Mitra Modaressi's sprightly art--now that's a deal!
Review
This is a community story that will engage and entertain young ones, who will have second thoughts about the everyday objects in their own lives. (Booklist )
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Exuberant watercolors bring heart and magic to this quirky tale. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
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...this tale provides a strong incentive to attend summer garage sales (Denver Post)
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[This book] should find a knowing and appreciative audience. Modaressi...employs delightful watercolors to capture the dot-eyed, round-faced, sometimes electric-haired folks. (New York Times Book Review)
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A wonderfully written and delightful must have book... (Children's Book Review Service)
Review
Flea market shoppers get more than they bargain for in this tall tale, a latterday "Aladdin and the Lamp." One morning, residents of Spudville pore over the pickings at Mr. Flotsam's yard sale: a rug, a typewriter, a phone, a pasta-maker. The objects seem ordinary, but when the shoppers get home, inexplicable things happen. The rug flies off, with a boy aboard. The typewriter produces a novel. And when Mrs. Applebee's new telephone rings, "It was her great- great- great-grandmother, just calling to say hello!" The townspeople, initially outraged and demanding refunds, grow to appreciate their magical possessions. As in her The Dream Pillow, Modaressi sets uncanny events in a tree-dotted small-town America. With understated, offhand wit, she demonstrates, the secondhand-store credo that one man's trash is another man's treasure. The pasta-maker churns out a "waist deep" pile of spaghetti, but they are the tastiest noodles anyone has ever eaten; the telephone scares Mrs. Applebee's, but now Mr. Rotelli "can finally get [his] great-great-great-aunt Sylvia's recipe for carrot cake." The art, in an antiqued palette of mossy green, mauve and butter yellow, features Modaressi's characteristically skewed, eerie but cheery water-color images. Fun from start to finish. (Publishers Weekly (Starred Review))
Review
Exuberant watercolors fill each page without crowding it, and the folks are a mix of colors, body types, genders, and age-groups. Most of all, the grins on their faces prove that this is a celebration of the nourishment of connectedness and community. (Kirkus Reviews)
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The is an amusing bit of magical realism about looking at things in a new way and the joys of the unexpected. (School Library Journal )
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Not only does Modaressi tell a funny, poignant story, but she draws her people with interesting faces of diverse color and expression. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
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This wonderfully magical book will delight all ages. (Framingham Daily News)
Synopsis
When Mr. Flotsam has a yard sale in the quiet town of Spudville, his neighbors are first upset, then delighted, by their purchases. Full-color illustrations.
About the Author
Mitra Modaressi is the author and illustrator of Monster Stew, published by DK Ink, which the New York Times Book Review said offered "everything the small child's mind desires." She also wrote and illustrated The Dream Pillow, The Parent Thief, and The Beastly Visits and illustrated Anne Tyler's Tumble Tower. She frequently patronizes yard sales in her hometown of San Francisco.