Traction Man Is Here!

I love "Traction Man!" Great book for a kid (buy this for Christmas!), not so great for a read aloud. The illustrations are terrific and deserve closer scrutiny.

Funny and clearly understand the world of imagination and kid play. I remember doing many similar adventures myself as a kid. The artwork is great; the images are so full of tiny details that many pages could be used as I-spy material.

Traction Man is so enjoyable as a read aloud. It's one of the funnest books for storytime that I have ever done. In addition to the enjoyable Traction Man voice you get to do, the illustrations are grodily detailed and charming. I especially enjoyed the sink scene in which Traction Man gets saved

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by his new pal, Scrubbing Brush! This story is very enjoyable for kids and adults.

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raction Man arrives at the foot of a young boy's bed to save Christmas! Then Traction Man saves the toys from the evil bed pillows, goes deep sea diving & meets his new pet, the scrub brush. He saves ladies from Wicked Professor Spade, scrub brush from the mysterious 'toes' at the bottom of the

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tub, and goes for a ride to grandma's in the Giant InterGalactic People Mover! But when he gets to grandma's, he is forced to wear a romper suit with a matching bonnet. (Thanks, grandma.) He tries saving others, but they just laugh at his outfit. But then! Scrub brush helps him to realize that he can use his new knit outfit to save the fallen spoons by unraveling his outfit & sending down the yarn! (He will look better too.) Then scrub brush & him retire to a vacation. What fun!!

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A young boy gets the gift of Traction Man for Christmas, and takes him on some exciting adventures. Traction man rescues dollies, farm animals, and spoons and goes on a special mission into the kitchen sink. They travel to Grandma's house where traction man recieves a handknitted green onesie and

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matching bonnett.

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LOVED this. It is more episodic than full narrative, but one could make an argument that the climax is when Traction Man is faced with the one challenge that he may not be able to overcome—the all-in-one knitted green romper suit and matching bonnet (made by Granny). With the help of his faithful

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pet Scrubbing Brush, Traction Man finally deals with the suit and we know he will go on to save another day. Both the text and art are incredibly funny and clever and the whole book is imaginative and just an overall treat to read.

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I really liked this book. It reminded me of my brother always making up stories for his action figures and setting up scenes(and no it's not the same as playing barbies he says!)

Sparks imagination. Traction man overcomes many obstacles like horrible green-knitted shirt from the boy's Grandma. Traction man constantly wins battles. Good vs. Evil. Kids can relate. Book has lots of color creating animation and action. This book does not have soft fluffy animals.

This book is ok. Very busy and I feel like you'll have to explain a lot to the kids to get them to understand this very imaginative book.

This book has appeal for kids and adults. Kids can relate to the imagination involved in the book and adults can appreciate the perspective used in showing the action through both the words and illustrations.

Unfortunately, this is everything that I believe is wrong with children's books. It's sexist, presents hints of violence (war clothes, violent enemies, fighting), and presses existing dangerous stereotypes. There are very, VERY few superheroes that exist that aren't white or male, and children of

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every identity need superheroes that represent them, to make them feel brave and invincible too. The fact that Traction Man had to "save" three Dollies, who were presented nude, shows the women as weak and "in distress." The only other female characters in the story are the mother and the grandmother of the boy, and the woman's work (knitting) that the grandma does is disrespected and put down. I tried to see beyond these aspects, but this book sums up what children's books shouldn't be, regardless if it's only meant to be simple fun or about bravery or what have you. Children get enough of oppression everywhere else, so children's books should try to fight against that. I would not recommend this book.

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In this immensely entertaining picture-book from English children's author and artist Mini Grey, a young boy receives a new Traction Man hero-figure for Christmas, and proceeds to put him through his paces, in a variety of imaginary play scenarios. From scuba diving in the sink to crawling through

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the "jungle" near the pond, Traction Man is always triumphant, and always suitably dressed for the job! Then he is confronted with the green knitted romper suit that Granny has made for him. Can a super-hero be a super-hero, in such a get-up? Fortunately for Traction Man, his reliable sidekick, Scrubbing Brush, comes to the rescue...

Chosen as one of our December selections, over in The Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme this month is toys, Traction Man Is Here! is a hilarious tale of a boy and his toy, and the adventures they have together. Although the boy is often out of the picture, it is clear that it is he, and not Traction Man, who is directing the action, making the resolution of the green romper suit issue all the more humorous. With bright, appealing artwork, and an engaging story that emphasizes the boy's imagination - I particularly liked the Poisonous Dishcloth monster, and the Scrubbing Brush dog - this is a book that young kids with a sense of humor, and a fondness for imaginary play will appreciate!

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This book was so charming! I'm glad I used this book to do my visual literacy assignment because I learned so much about the story from doing so. I like that there is a balance between realism and surrealism within the story. I also enjoyed that Traction Man maintains some of his doll features

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while he's on his adventures. With respect to the style of writing, it read almost like an advertisement for the action figure, which I found to be very amusing, how an action figure would have his adventures in an average home, fighting with brooms and saving spoons and scrubbing brushes. In the classroom, this would make for a great read aloud.

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This was the inspiration for our own tiny superhero at the library.
The kids documented with photos and written reports what Captain Bucky's exploits were around the library.

I enjoyed looking at the details in each picture. I am a bit hesitant to encourage young kids to "play" war, but I think there is plenty of seperation between reality and make believe here.

I totally love the knitted green romper suit, and matching bonnet, so funny. This is a fabulous graphic book. It would be a book to share and enjoy together or suitable for a fairly fluent reader. The book really captures a child's imagination as he plays with his toy.

Traction man is a fun comic-style story about a boy's imagination using his action figure. His super hero figure, Traction Man, fights crime and helps with chores. For christmas, he gets a hand-knit onesie from grandma that gets torn up, and goes on more adventures. Fun book to give to an early

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reader, perhaps.

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