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Reviewed by:
  • Monday, Wednesday, and Every Other Weekend by Karen Stanton
  • Deborah Stevenson
Stanton, Karen. Monday, Wednesday, and Every Other Weekend; written and illus. by Karen Stanton. Feiwel, 2014. [32p]. ISBN 978-1-250-03489-2 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs.

“My name is Henry Cooper and I live in two houses. So does my dog, Pomegranate.” Mama’s apartment, where Henry and Pomegranate live Monday, Wednesday, and every other weekend, is colorful and lively, but a restless Pomegranate “wants to go home”; Papa’s house, where they live the rest of the time, is a feast of music and pizza, but again, “Pomegranate wants to go home.” When Pomegranate runs away one day, Henry knows where he’s gone: back to the house where they all lived together before his parents divorced. Can Henry convince him to let go of the old home for the new? The theme and the poignancy are reminiscent of Coffelt’s Fred Stays with Me! (BCCB 9/07), but here Pomegranate is proxy as much as pet, symbolizing Henry’s own wish to return to the family that’s dissolved. While his return with Pomegranate to his new life may indicate his own adjustment, the mourning for what’s gone comes through strongly, giving the title a refreshingly candid acknowledgment of loss. Acrylic and collage art hums with vivid contrasting color in a fruity palette in full-bleed scenes; figures are drawn with folk-art naïveté and gaiety, and landscapes are cheerily crowded with toylike houses in non-Euclidean shapes, so the illustrations keep the mood from descending into gloom. Plenty of kids know the experience of divorced parents and house-to-house shuttling, and they’ll embrace the device of a pet’s acting out their own feelings.“My name is Henry Cooper and I live in two houses. So does my dog, Pomegranate.” Mama’s apartment, where Henry and Pomegranate live Monday, Wednesday, and every other weekend, is colorful and lively, but a restless Pomegranate “wants to go home”; Papa’s house, where they live the rest of the time, is a feast of music and pizza, but again, “Pomegranate wants to go home.” When Pomegranate runs away one day, Henry knows where he’s gone: back to the house where they all lived together before his parents divorced. Can Henry convince him to let go of the old home for the new? The theme and the poignancy are reminiscent of Coffelt’s Fred Stays with Me! (BCCB 9/07), but here Pomegranate is proxy as much as pet, symbolizing Henry’s own wish to return to the family that’s dissolved. While his return with Pomegranate to his new life may indicate his own adjustment, the mourning for what’s gone comes through strongly, giving the title a refreshingly candid acknowledgment of loss. Acrylic and collage art hums with vivid contrasting color in a fruity palette in full-bleed scenes; figures are drawn with folk-art naïveté and gaiety, and landscapes are cheerily crowded with toylike houses in non-Euclidean shapes, so the illustrations keep the mood from descending into gloom. Plenty of kids know the experience of divorced parents and house-to-house shuttling, and they’ll embrace the device of a pet’s acting out their own feelings.

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