| "When it
comes to animal tales in our time, of course, no author-illustrator
can hold a crayon to William Steig." --Selma G. Lanes, The
Washington Post Book World
"In Tiffky Doofky, Steig
shows why his juvenile following equals the Pied Piper's." --Time
"Tiffky Doofky is a
(dog) garbage collector who's told by fortune teller Madame Tarsal
that this very day, before the sun goes down, you will fall in love
with the one you are going to marry . . . but his fortune gets temporarily
waylaid by an old chicken biddy who's secretly Madame Tarsal's enemy
and persists in trying to foil her fortune-telling." --*Starred/Booklist
Reviews
Booklist - *starred review
The title will be an instant charmer to children attuned to
silliness, and they'll undoubtedly sit still for the willy-nilly
plot that's beguiling for its very quirkiness. Tiffky Doofky is a
(dog) garbage collector who's told by fortune-teller Madam Tarsal
that "this very day, before the sun goes down, you will fall in
love with the one you are going to marry." Tiffky's amenable to
that: "Maybe I'll find her at the dump," he muses as he
heads there with his loaded truck, "But more likely it'll be at
the Oil & Vinegar Club picnic." But his fortune gets
temporarily waylaid by an old chicken biddy who's secretly Madam
Tarsal's enemy and persists in trying to foil her fortune-telling.
The arrow she shoots and directs Tiffky to follow leads him to a
strangely unknown countryside where he rambles until Steig
quick-shuffles him out and safely into the sights of Estrella, the
circus' fearless snake trainer. "(How the devil did this
happen? Well, the old biddy who had been holding him under a spell
had to go home in order to lay an egg. This egg demanded all her
attention, and tired her. So she turned herself into a pair of
old sneakers, something she did now and then because she found it
restful. Tiffky Doofky had been forgotten, he was off the
hook.)" As the sun sets it is instant love: "Madam Tarsal
knew her onions after all!" You know Steig's line style; the
brightening washes have a mellow feel, thanks to orange and beige accents, including a neon sunset. It's
another droll winner.
Horn Book Magazine
Garbage collector for the town of Popville, Tiffky Doofky, an
affable pooch blessed with pride in his calling and an optimistic
outlook, decides one fine spring day to have his fortune told, for
he senses that "something out of the ordinary was bound to
happen, and he had to know what it was going to be." His
premonition is reinforced by the local fortune-telling duck, who
quacks out the prediction that he will meet his true love before
sunset. At the dump, however, his penchant for sorting treasures
from trash leads to his finding an emerald necklace lying on a bed
of sauerkraut -- a necklace that leads him to fall under the spell
of a malevolent witch. After a series of adventures in an unfamiliar
land, he notes that the sun has nearly set without his having
located the promised love. His rescue from a final trial and the
beginnings of his romance conclude a droll tale which parodies the
structure of a sentimental novel -- including a last view of the
canine couple in the afterglow of the setting sun. The descriptive,
witty text is finely honed to complement the extraordinarily
articulate line with which the characters are limned. The
illustrations further extend the parody in the contrast between the
beauty of the watercolors and the absurdity of the concept. The
picture storybook will probably be most appreciated by an audience
slightly older than that which enjoys Sylvester and the Magic
Pebble or Amos & Boris. |
Tiffky
Doofky