The Pagemaster
The adventures of the obsessively fearful Richard in this oversize, garishly illustrated allegory begin when he reluctantly ventures out on his bike, even though "most traffic accidents happen within three blocks of the home." In the library, he bumps his head (shades of The Wizard of Oz ) and finds that he must travel across a fantasy landscape teeming with characters from fiction--Moby Dick, Dr. Jekyll, Long John Silver, Thumbelina--to reach the exit. Three personified books--the piratical but cowardly Adventure, schoolmarmish Fantasy (an odd, sexist characterization) and ugly, eager-to-please Horror--accompany him on his pseudo-epic journey. At the end he must confront a dragon (and his fears) on his own. As he pedals home, the change in his personality is both considerable and hard to credit (in one illustration, his glasses have even vanished). Constant references to Richard's timidity and the bickering among his cartoon-like companions are as tiresome as the unimaginative prose: "All this time, the dragon was torching everything around it." Nor does the florid, egregiously literal art add much. Ages 7-13. 150,000 first printing.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.