Book Review: Clifford the Big Red Dog
What Parents Should Know
Parents may enjoy the dry humor of the text and the simple
story. Children giggle over the childlike drawings of a huge
dog and his escapades.
Common Sense Media Review
Dry wit for children is unusual in these days of
over-the-top silliness and bathroom humor. But Norman Bridwell
knows how to tickle a child's funnybone without pandering. He
accomplishes this by juxtaposing blandly flat textual setups
with expressive drawings that act as a punch line on each
page.
Clifford is huge. It's a seemingly simple premise, but Bridwell is able to ring endless variations on the theme, and young children lap it up. Clifford is so big that Emily Elizabeth has to give him a bath in a swimming pool. When he sits up and begs she has to give him his treat from a second-story window. When she throws a stick, he returns with a policeman's nightstick--with the police officer still attached.
As one might expect in a book where the pictures make the story, Bridwell's are charming. Simple lines and colors are combined with clever cropping and a delightful range of expressions for the goofy Clifford. His sneaky tiptoeing when playing hide-and-seek, his look of surprise to find his ears propped up with sticks to make a tent, and his one-eyed glare at a burglar who's after Emily Elizabeth's piggybank, all keep kids chortling--and reading.
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