Wet Friend!

Adventure of Meno, Elf of Space #2

by Tony DiTerlizzi, Angela DiTerlizzi

GREETINGS, EARTHLINGS!

MENO AND FRIEND YAMAGOO WANT FRIEND TRIO. YES, WE DO!

Tony DiTerlizzi is the #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the Spiderwick Chronicles, Kenny & the Dragon, and the 2003 Caldecott Honor Book The Spider and the Fly. He is also a #1 husband and father. Here he teams with wife and partner in publishing, Angela, to make sure every child gets his or her wish, especially if that wish is for a WET FRIEND!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, Tony DiTerlizzi, has been creating children’s books for twenty years. From fanciful picture books like The Broken Ornament and The Spider & The Fly (a Caldecott Honor book), to chapter books like Kenny and The Dragon and The Search for WondLa, DiTerlizzi imbues his stories with rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle-grade series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold over 20 million copies, been adapted into a feature film, and translated in over thirty countries. He teamed up with Lucasfilm to retell the original Star Wars trilogy as a picture book and his collaboration with celebrated author Mo Willems created the bestseller The Story of Diva & Flea. The Norman Rockwell museum’s retrospective, “Never Abandon Imagination”, featured artwork from the beginning of DiTerlizzi’s career as a contributing artist for Dungeons & Dragons and broke attendance records. He has been featured in Time magazine, USA Today, CNN, PBS, NPR the BBC and The Today Show.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meno is back looking for a new friend! I love this series!

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

What did I just read? It is one thing to present this book as a bit of kitsch for adults, with its surreal humor and mangled meme-speech. However, it is definitely not for kids who are just learning to read and speak in grammatically correct sentences--it will be tremendously confusing and may help instill some bad habits. I'm not sure why this one was marketed to a juvenile audience.

[Alea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second in the Meno series and to me it's as great as the last. Sure there aren't many pages, not much content and it really shouldn't be used as reading tool for young children but for an adult with the right sense of humor and an appreciation for the illustration style this is definitely a series to be collected.

How can it be only for children when there is a David Hasselhoff joke! I think this is a case of the book being mis-marketed. I mean sure children CAN read it but I really think this is more for the adults. At first I thought it the series could be enjoyed by children and adults equally, but after reading others reactions and thinking about it, I think they are right that this isn't spot on for children. I think this is a group of adults out there (me included) that could really get a kick out of these though.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funniest book I read all day (out of about 15 picture books). This time the illustrations were "rendered with wizardry." This book is even better than the first because it was so hilarious I had to hold in my laughter at the library. Adorable again but great for parents reading it to their kids because only you will get some of it!

[Mindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superboy could not stop laughing!

[LibraryLaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, my goodness, this is giggle-inducing. I recommend this to all my friends who have lived in Korea.

[Christopher Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hilarious quick read kids book. Written in almost a broken English type. Plus it presented in dazzling Meno-color!. :-)

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious!

[Anatoly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best "children" books I've read in a while. And the only one that I know of that has an appearance by David Hasselhoff.

[Sam Bloom · Rating 1 out of 5]

So offensive on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin... so I won't waste my time!

[Nielson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The sequel to the aforementioned Big Fun (weird book). I found this equally as weird. The book is about Meno and Yamagoo and their friend Wishi, who makes dreams come true. Meno and Yamagoo wish for her to make them another friend. She makes them a "zanzibar" which ends up being a fish. I seriously can't figure out the language in this book. It sounds like a foreigner wrote it, but maybe it helps expand kids' imaginations?? Wouldn't recommend these ones. PRE-K-Not recommended. Again, would give it a negative star if I could.

[Shelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am torn on how to feel about this board book series by the always fabulous Tony DiTerlizzi. The illustrations are adorable and the characters have such fantastic expressions. However, the sentence structure is written all squirrely and backward.
Example:

Instead of saying: I will call my friend named Wishi; the book says: “Meno call friend of name Wishi.”

While this way of speaking may sound quirky and cute coming out of Meno’s mouth I would be upset, to see young readers picking up his poor grammatical speaking skills.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

My co-worker told me about this book when David Hasselhoff creeped into a random conversation we were having. We found the book on the shelves and read it together. It is one of the most bizarre books I've ever read, and I usually don't find too many things too out there for me. I still haven't decided if I love it or hate it. For now, two stars.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both the 3 and the 6 year old really like this book. I...kind of don't get it. It's sort of like Yo Gabba Gabba in print. With David Hasselhoff. The illustrations are cute, but I still don't really get it.

[Ashley Howard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely TERRIBLE! My 2 year old son got this for Christmas from my grandmother. I'm guessing she didn't actually read it! I read through it and thought maybe it was a popular series in Japan that had been VERY poorly translated, but no, the author is from the U.S. What the hell? Garbage.

[Maggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just don't get it. Why publish a children's book that sounds like it was written by Google Translate? By way of example, I give you, "Meno, could friend be of David Hasselhoff." at least the illustrations are fun to look at.

[Audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just wondering...WHAT!?!?!?. I think my 10 year old son would really enjoy some of the verbage.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This picture book seemed kitschy and 60's-ish, but I had to deduct points for bad grammar and "baby talk" sentences. Ugh.

[Krista · Rating 1 out of 5]

WHAT THE HELL??? is all I have to say about this book.....Don't be surprised when I see you or call you and read you this book!

[Beth Kakuma-Depew]

more for adults than kids.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

So much no. The grammar is terrible and I just don't get it. The star is from the illustrations. They are great.

[Natalie Hoist · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this book. It was confusing to read, and i would not recommend reading this to children. It pronounces words strangely and would not be good for young readers.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun adventure with Meno and pals. Delightfully silly stuff.

[Valerie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What's with the poor verbiage? It's DiTerlizzi, not a poorly translated Japanese production.