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The Web Files

The Web Files

List Price: $15.99
Your Price: $10.87
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cute
Review: Dragnet (dum de dum dum), nursery rhymes (Little Boy Blue), James Cagney (you dirty rat), and Hawaii 5-O (Book 'im, ducko) all contribute to this clever detective tale, and the typeface looks like typewriter type, just as a detective's report would have looked before computers.

The inventive use of other sources and the logical detection of the plot make this a winner for adults. I can't wait to see how my four-year-old grandson likes it.

Parts of some illustrations didn't seem to have anything to do with the story, but the lettuce leaf hanging from the dirty rat's chin is perfect, though obvious.

If the children you read to like mysteries, try the Nate the Great series by Marjorie Sharmat. They are easy-to-read books and great logic puzzles for the young.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Web Files
Review: I read this book to my five year old son tonight with my "Dragnet" voice and we laughed as the catchy Dum De Dum Dum was read. I decided to read it to my 8 year old daughter as well and she also loved the book and said we have to get it. I came back to my son's room down the hall where he should have been going off to sleep, and noticed at 8:53 the he was still up listening to me read the book to his sister, he liked it that much and now I am ordering it from Amazon this instant! Dum De Dum Dum Dum!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A cop show tailor made for the preschool set
Review: Let's say you're a parent that loves nothing more in the entire world than to sit down and watch a little "Dragnet" on the telly. Now let's say you're that same parent, but you'd like to instill the wonders of Jack Webb in your little one. Enter Margie Palatini and Richard Egielski's, "The Web Files". More "dum de dum dum"s than you could shake a fist at.

Bill and Web (partners) are working the barnyard shift when they hear trouble ah-brewing. Someone's been pirating a peck of purple peppers (ready for pickeling). It's off to confront he usual suspects, when our heroes get a lead. In the end, you can rest assured that the dastardly villain will have met his just desserts and our brave ducktectives can work another day.

There are people who will buy this book, read it over and over, and love every minute of it. They'll revel in the exceedingly terrible puns that crop up with frightening regularity. They'll soak up the detective atmosphere (a combination of "Dragnet" and Ed McBain). They'll never get bored with this puppy, and that's all right. There really are some nice things in this book. Egielski's adept illustrations compliment the rising action, best displayed in a scene in which a variety of fairy tale characters hound the police precinct with tales of woe. I was especially taken with the third degree our heroes give a distraught Little Boy Blue.

As for myself, the aforementioned scenes are gold. But the puns.... lordy begordy the puns. Admittedly I have a low pun tolerance. If you can read the following sentence without twitching, then this is undoubtedly a good book to get: "A lot of squawking going on down in the coop area, Ducktective Web. Looks like fowl play. Report says feathers are flying. Chief says we should check out the chicks." You get the idea. I, personally, had problems with that sentence, but that's just me. Other people will adore this book. It does have some nice touches here and there and is chock full of enough movies and cop shows to bring a chuckle every other page. If you like a good rousing yarn and don't mind slightly painful text, this is the perfect book for a dark and rainy night. Hint: Have your kids hum the "Dragnet" closing music when the book's villain is tried and convicted. The book supplies all the "Dum de dum dum"s itself.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A cop show tailor made for the preschool set
Review: Let's say you're a parent that loves nothing more in the entire world than to sit down and watch a little "Dragnet" on the telly. Now let's say you're that same parent, but you'd like to instill the wonders of Jack Webb in your little one. Enter Margie Palatini and Richard Egielski's, "The Web Files". More "dum de dum dum"s than you could shake a fist at.

Bill and Web (partners) are working the barnyard shift when they hear trouble ah-brewing. Someone's been pirating a peck of purple peppers (ready for pickeling). It's off to confront he usual suspects, when our heroes get a lead. In the end, you can rest assured that the dastardly villain will have met his just desserts and our brave ducktectives can work another day.

There are people who will buy this book, read it over and over, and love every minute of it. They'll revel in the exceedingly terrible puns that crop up with frightening regularity. They'll soak up the detective atmosphere (a combination of "Dragnet" and Ed McBain). They'll never get bored with this puppy, and that's all right. There really are some nice things in this book. Egielski's adept illustrations compliment the rising action, best displayed in a scene in which a variety of fairy tale characters hound the police precinct with tales of woe. I was especially taken with the third degree our heroes give a distraught Little Boy Blue.

As for myself, the aforementioned scenes are gold. But the puns.... lordy begordy the puns. Admittedly I have a low pun tolerance. If you can read the following sentence without twitching, then this is undoubtedly a good book to get: "A lot of squawking going on down in the coop area, Ducktective Web. Looks like fowl play. Report says feathers are flying. Chief says we should check out the chicks." You get the idea. I, personally, had problems with that sentence, but that's just me. Other people will adore this book. It does have some nice touches here and there and is chock full of enough movies and cop shows to bring a chuckle every other page. If you like a good rousing yarn and don't mind slightly painful text, this is the perfect book for a dark and rainy night. Hint: Have your kids hum the "Dragnet" closing music when the book's villain is tried and convicted. The book supplies all the "Dum de dum dum"s itself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A pun-filled frolic
Review: Margie Palatini and Richard Egielski's splendid picturebook Web Files is a different, celebrated form of intrigue for the very young in which someone has pilfered a peck of perfect purple almost-pickled peppers. It's up to Ducktective Web to investigate. Good reading skills or parental assistance will enhance appreciation of this pun-filled frolic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A wacky, hilarious detective tale
Review: The Web Files is a wacky, hilarious detective tale set in a barnyard with two ducks as heroes. Dum De Dum Dum. Styled on the old Dragnet series model, the tale unfolds with minimum clipped dialogue and lots of implied action humourously expressed by the color illustrations of Richard Egielski. This school age child's book's style is contagious. Be prepared for repeat requests to read this one aloud.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: good for giggles
Review: This book is a great find. I read it in dragnet style ( for those old enough to know that) the characters are great for changing voice in the story and the dum da dum dum gets my son giggling every time. The bad guy gets caught and there is even some humor adults would enjoy. I recommend this to anyone who likes to add a little variety to the books they read and act out the story instead of just reading the words. EXCELLENT!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT!!!!!
Review: This was one of the funniest kids books I have ever read! It was hilarious and downright entertaining. It had my children and I excited about turning the page. I even called my 15 year old sister, read it to her and she loved it! Ms. Palatini should make this a series. I would buy every one!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Never mind my daughter, I want to read it again! ;-)
Review: We picked this book up at the library and have been laughing out loud ever since. You can read about the story itself in the editorial review above. This is one book I really love reading several times a day (as most kids want you to do). I've had a great time trying to get the Dragnet dead-pan voice just right - now try doing it with a tongue-twister too! This book is just plain funny!

We both love the myriad references to other stories and characters, the tongue-twisting fun and wonderful illustrations. She loves hearing me read it and catches me if I miss one of the twisters. Reading the same book over and over truly CAN be fun!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fun for both children AND parents alike
Review: What a fun and funny book Margie Palatini has written--and Richard Egielski's cartoonish yet deadpan illustrations complement it beautifully. Palatini has taken the "Dum de dum dum" theme from TV's long-ago "Dragnet" and applied it here to a barnyard mystery. Sounds simple, and simplistic, but she soars in weaving into the story all sorts of fairy tale and nursery rhyme goodies--not to mention wonderful wordplay, like:

"A lot of squawking going on down in the coop area, Ducktective Web. Looks like fowl play. Report says feathers are flying. Chief says we should check out the chicks."

"Chicks?"

"Check."

"Let's fly." DUM DE DUM DUM . . .

Palatini works in Peter Piper and his pack of pickled peppers (upping the ante by calling them perfect and purple as well), a falsely accused Little Boy Blue who offers the alibi that HE didn't do it because he was under the haystack, fast asleep--which the witnesses then confirm with: "The sheep were in the meadow. Cows in the corn." Swing back again quickly to the "Dragnet" end of things and the author makes one of the suspects an actual Dirty Rat (aptly named Ratzo).

This is fun for children and possibly even more fun for their baby boomer parents. It's a great read.


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