Cousin Irv from Mars - Hardcover

Kaplan, Bruce Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1442449233 ISBN 13: 9781442449237

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013

Synopsis

From the author/illustrator of Monsters Eat Whiny Children comes a humorous tale about learning to accept your family—even if one of them is an alien.

Teddy isn’t excited about Cousin Irv’s visit. Cousin Irv is too weird. He steals Teddy’s pillow, eats Teddy’s food, and even plays with Teddy’s action figures. Not to mention that Cousin Irv is from MARS. What will Teddy’s friends say?

But it turns out that everyone at school loves Cousin Irv. Not only is he from a different planet, he can vaporize things! Maybe cousins from Mars aren’t so bad after all...

Illustrated with clever simplicity in New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Kaplan’s trademark style and filled with out-of-this-world whimsy, Cousin Irv from Mars is an interplanetary treat that begs to be shared.

About this title

About the Author:

Bruce Eric Kaplan, known for his distinctive, off-beat single-panel cartoons, has been a New Yorker cartoonist for more than fifteen years. He is also a television writer and was an executive producer for the acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under, as well as a writer on Seinfeld (funnily enough, one of his most well-known episodes is one where Elaine becomes increasingly frustrated over what she takes to be an utterly nonsensical New Yorker cartoon). He has authored and illustrated seven adult titles including the cult classic The Cat That Changed My Life; the collections I Love You, I Hate You, I’m Hungry; No One You Know; and This Is a Bad Time; and three titles featuring the wonderfully neurotic Brooklyn couple Edmund and Rosemary: Every Person on the Planet, Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell, and Everything Is Going to Be Okay. Bruce is also the author and illustrator of four picture books: Monsters Eat Whiny Children, Cousin Irv from Mars, Meaniehead, and Someone Farted. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Bruce Eric Kaplan, known for his distinctive, off-beat single-panel cartoons, has been a New Yorker cartoonist for more than fifteen years. He is also a television writer and was an executive producer for the acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under, as well as a writer on Seinfeld (funnily enough, one of his most well-known episodes is one where Elaine becomes increasingly frustrated over what she takes to be an utterly nonsensical New Yorker cartoon). He has authored and illustrated seven adult titles including the cult classic The Cat That Changed My Life; the collections I Love You, I Hate You, I’m Hungry; No One You Know; and This Is a Bad Time; and three titles featuring the wonderfully neurotic Brooklyn couple Edmund and Rosemary: Every Person on the Planet, Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell, and Everything Is Going to Be Okay. Bruce is also the author and illustrator of four picture books: Monsters Eat Whiny Children, Cousin Irv from Mars, Meaniehead, and Someone Farted. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 4-6–In this picture book, Teddy's mother's cousin visits from Mars and must sleep in the youngster's bedroom. Throughout, commentary directed at readers moves the story along, giving them an earful about Cousin Irv and his noisy breathing. Meanwhile, Teddy's mother tells Irv that Teddy doesn't want him to know that her son has no friends. When the man takes out his electromagnetic ray in Teddy's classroom and vaporizes objects, Teddy is suddenly popular, and his feelings about his relative shift: “You know, if you only see what you don't like about someone, you never see what you do like about them.” Nothing lasts long, though, and when Irv's vacation is over, disappointed Teddy admits, “We all know, or should know if we weren't always forgetting, accepting things is the only way to be happy.” But there's more. Teddy's dad gets a job on Mars, and the family moves in with Coursin Irv. The unique pen-and-ink and watercolor artwork on white backgrounds is spare and looks rudimentary, and the characters have crude, claylike expressions.The pictures convey a sense of space, which adds to the pacing of the story and emphasizes the trajectory of the visit. Kids might be inspired by Kaplan's easy-to-imitate style. Nevertheless, the book is likely to have a limited audience of sophisticated readers.–Sara Lissa Paulson, The American Sign Language and English Lower School, New York Cityα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1442449233
• ISBN 13: 9781442449237
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Kaplan Bruce Eric