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Reviewed by:
  • Hugo Sprouts and the Strange Case of the Beans by John Loren
  • Kate Quealy-Gainer, Assistant Editor
Loren, John Hugo Sprouts and the Strange Case of the Beans; written and illus. by John Loren. HarperCollins,
2021 [48 p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9780062941169 $17.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-7 yrs

Young Hugo Sprouts is a genius inventor, but he has yet to solve his biggest problem: his diminutive stature. His muscular mountain of a father encourages young Hugo to eat liver, soy, gravy, and plenty of beans to sprout up, but to no avail. Clever Hugo brings those beans to his laboratory, boiling them down to a gooey green brew and knocking back a few shots of his homemade potion. The morning after, Hugo is a green giant of a boy who can play kickball with the big kids, go on whatever amusement park ride he likes, and tower over pretty much everyone—but it's not enough. He keeps drinking his concoction and keeps getting larger and more destructive until a friend talks him out of his reign of terror. There's a Seussian flavor to the rhyming text ("'Great Scott!' cried the mayor. 'Gadzooks and good gravy!/Send word to the army and get me the navy!'") and Hugo's refrain of "Why, that just won't do" as he gains in size offers a chance for some playful storytime repetition. A garish green dominates the palette, with Hugo looking increasingly like Frankenstein's monster, and as he gets bigger, the scenes get more goofily chaotic, with tumbling skyscrapers and smashed food trucks. Pair this with Brockington's Hangry (BCCB 5/19) for a theme of bad behavior gone B-movie.

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