Review: Beautiful Illustrations and a Kooky, Fun Story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2014
The illustrations in this book for young children (or slightly older children who are at the intermediate stage of learning to read on their own) are the first things that make this book a standout.  They are of the caliber of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” and Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Moon.” They’re quirky, colorful and funny and both children and adults will find them enchanting.  The story is charming, fantastic and filled with a band of kooky characters, including the hero, Nicky, a twelve-year-old boy with 2 different colored eyes and a slightly wonky ear.  Nicky finds that his eyes, ears, nose…all of his senses…have been kidnapped by a band of malevolent circus performers bent on getting revenge against his father, who put them out of work. He can no longer control his ability to see, taste, or hear and if he doesn't get his senses back by midnight, they will all shrivel up and die.  In order to save his sick father, Nicky must find a way to gather the “face critters” back up and get them back where they belong: on his face.In the end, this is a story of the love of a child for his father and the lengths that we will go to in order to aid the ones we love.  I can’t imagine a child who wouldn't love this book!