Happy Birthday, Frankie

The leg bone's connected to the ...Hmmmmm, what is the leg bone connected to? Not to mention the arm bone, and all the other parts of the mad professor's build-your-own Frankenstein project. Will the professor manage to assemble Frankie in time to celebrate the monster's first birthday?

From Publishers Weekly

Shoes, screws and mechanical hands lie scattered across the endpapers of this picture book, which posits a do-it-yourself Frankenstein. The monster-making kit comes in a big cardboard box, accompanied by instructions ("Screw elbow (A) to (B) to arm.... glue zipper (C) to head assembly"). As a scientist tries and fails to put the parts together, clever collage illustrations reveal the misbegotten results: "The leg bone's connected to the... Oh, dear. The arm bone's connected to the... Nope." At last, Frankie is complete; his blue skull is zippered, his eyes and nose are in place and his corrugated-cardboard limbs swivel properly. Unfortunately, he blows out his birthday candle with such gusto that he disassembles his creatorAthe book ends with an image of a puzzled Frankie with a wrench in hand. Held together by glue, gesso and a few photocopied rivets, debut illustrator Linn's asymmetrical paint-and-cut-paper monster recalls Henrik Drescher's sinister clip-and-paste images. Weeks (Mrs. McNosh Hangs up Her Wash) keeps the narration to a bare minimum and lets the pictures do most of the storytelling. Kids will relish the goofy use of a favorite song, and they'll appreciate the brio of Linn's postmodern high jinks. Ages 3-7. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3 Deep within his laboratory, a scientist attempts to assemble a Frankenstein-like monster. As he fumbles through several false starts and ungainly constructions, he mutters parts of that old song, "the leg bone's connected to ." Finally completed, the monster is presented with a birthday jack-o'-lantern. The force of Frankie's breath as he blows out the candle, however, blasts the doctor to pieces, leaving the monster to reconstruct his creator. Linn's paint and paper-collage illustrations feature a scientist with a triangular nose and gap-toothed grin reminiscent of David Shannon's protagonist in No, David! (Scholastic, 1998). The layout is confusing and busy, much like the doctor. Children may enjoy the concept of the scientist who doesn't know which body parts go where, but the illustrations are too cluttered to pick out exactly what mistakes he is making. The spare text is adequate, but after the rollicking rhythm of Weeks's Mrs. McNosh Hangs up Her Wash (HarperFestival, 1998), this one lacks flair. A serviceable Halloween offering that doesn't quite come together. Martha Link, Louisville Free Public Library, KY Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Anyone who has ever shuddered at the words "some assembly required" will sympathize with the frizzy-haired professor in a lab coat who labors to assemble a do-it-yourself Frankenstein monster from a box of disparate parts. The creature (with a blue face and snazzy forehead zipper) comes together just in time for his (its?) birthday. Oh, no, professor, don't stand in front of Frankie when he blows out those candles! Too late. The doc, who looks a bit stitched together himself, falls to pieces but, fortunately, the monster has a wrench, which makes it easy to connect the leg bone to the thigh bone to the . . . A slight but wacky, engaging story with droll, piecemeal pictures to match. Michael Cart

From Kirkus Reviews

PLB 0-06-028522-2 The endpapers offer a clue as to what to expect, showing an alarming array of paint, body parts, clothing, and typeface, which will be used in the workshop of a round-headed man in glasses wearing an acid-green lab coat. There are few words in this wild mishmash, most of them forming variants on the ``arm bone's connected to the . . .'' pattern as the hero attempts to assemble a Frankenstein-type monster. The mismatched fonts are as screwy as everything else, scattered about the pages in happy abandon. Eventually a blue-faced, recognizable monster appears, just in time to get a party hat plopped onto his head and to blow out the candle. The monster's response to the enthusiastic ``Happy birthday, Frankie'' leaves the professor in pieces; Frankie, in the last spread, is seen wrench in hand, trying to reassemble hima task that may prove as pointless as the book. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From the Back Cover

The leg bone's connected to the ...Hmmmmm, what is the leg bone connected to? Not to mention the arm bone, and all the other parts of the mad professor's build-your-own Frankenstein project. Will the professor manage to assemble Frankie in time to celebrate the monster's first birthday?

About the Author

Sarah Weeks has written more than fifty books for young readers. Some of her picture books include Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash, Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth!, and Glamourpuss. Her bestselling novel, So B. It, is a feature-length film starring Alfre Woodard and Talitha Bateman. Ms. Weeks visits thousands of students in elementary and middle schools across the country every year. She is also an adjunct professor in the prestigious MFA Writing for Children and Young Adults program at the New School. Sarah lives in Nyack, New York, with her husband, Jim Fyfe, and their dog, Mia. You can visit her online at sarahweeks.com.Warren Linn was born and raised in Chicago, where he received his B.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has taught at Parsons School of Design since 1986 and at the Maryland Institute College of Art since 1998. Mr. Linn lives in New York City.

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