Tony Baloney

Tony Baloney by Pam Ryan

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I wanted to like this book. I loved the title and the cover art. I could not wait to be a "ham" reading a title like Tony Baloney with a NJ or NY accent, but it fell flat for me. I did not like the story or the illustrations. Tony is a middle child who is stuck being bossed around by big sister or forced to play with younger sisters.



School Library Journal (February 1, 2011)
PreS-Gr 3-When Tony Baloney behaves badly, it's surely someone else's fault: the Bothersome Babies Baloney, bossy Big Sister Baloney, or his stuffed animal buddy, Dandelion. Suffering from a bad case of middle-child blues, the young penguin finds comfort in his hidey space and gets wise council from Dandelion. When he feels lonely and smells fish tacos, he decides to apologize for upsetting his siblings. In this rather whiny and loosely held together story, Tony doesn't even get his way in the end. Big Sister promises that he no longer has to be the kitty when they play together, so Tony passes that role to the twin babies, only to find that he must always play the dog. The last spread shows him sourly spilling milk at the tea party and fuming while wearing puppy ears. Older children may enjoy some of the humor, and younger children may respond to the bright, digital illustrations of the cartoon-style penguin family, but this is an additional purchase most useful for those seeking more stories about the woes of being stuck in the middle.-Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted

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