Morris Gleitzman was born in Lincolnshire and moved to Australia in his teens. He worked as a paperboy, a shelf-stacker, a frozen chicken thawer, an assistant to a fashion designer and more before taking a degree in Professional Writing at Canberra College and becoming a writer. He has written for TV, stage, newspapers and magazines but is best known for his hugely successful children's books including Two Weeks With the Queen, Bumface and Once.
Limpy, from Toad Rage, which PW called "a hilarious dark comedy," takes another star turn. Here he seeks a paradise for cane toads, free from human threats. Ages 9-12. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Gr 3-6-In this sequel to Toad Rage (Random, 2004), a young Australian cane toad longs to find a place where his family can live safely from the humans who seem to delight in squashing them. After an encounter with a conservationist, Limpy mistakenly believes that he has been injected with a virus that will wipe out his species. Hearing stories of a fabled "national park" where living things are protected, he sets out, hoping to find this refuge for his family before he dies. This is not a philosophical animal quest in the mold of Richard Adams's Watership Down (Scribner, 1974), but a rather darkly comic fantasy. Limpy and his two traveling companions-his slow, pugnacious cousin and his timid little sister-are a scruffy but oddly endearing crew. He is the brains of the outfit-a somewhat reluctant leader who manages to guide the others through encounters with militant fire ants, crocodiles, and a boatload of tourists. The often-raucous dialogue includes lots of body humor and gross-out descriptions of toad diet and personal habits. Even death is a frequent source of amusement, from the toads' eerie use of a flattened relative as an insect trap to the companions' unsettling experiences among stuffed souvenir cane toads in a gift shop. Readers will appreciate the combination of rowdy humor and adventure as well as the emphasis on individual courage and achievement.-Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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