(listen to the podcast review)

Traction Man

Have no fear! Traction Man is here!
With his faithful Scrubbing Brush sidekick, Traction Man battles against the oncoming Broom of Doom and the vicious Sponge from the Bottom of the Sink and other villains with mischief on the mind.
Writer and Illustrator Mini Grey turns a child's imaginative play with a toy into a wonderful story about the inner life of Traction Man, fearless hero in the mold of a GI Joe who seeks out adventure every minute of the day.  This book, entitled Traction Man Is Here, has all the humor of a good picture book intact, with the fun of an adventure comic thrown in for good measure. We follow the unnamed boy character from his letter to Santa, asking for Traction Man, right through all of the series of escapades of our hero.
Of course, even Traction Man turns a slight shade of red of embarrassment when the boy's grandmother knits Traction Man a green full-body Romper suit with matching green bonnet (he comes out looking a bit like an elongated pickle) and Traction Man is forced to don the new duds in front of grandma. Never fear, though, for Traction Man is not a hero to be held down for long. He's too resourceful and too upbeat for that.
In no time at all, he and Scrubbing Brush are literally using the threads from the Green Romper Suit to rescue the Spoons who have fallen out of the drawer and landed on the floor. Time is of the essence. The menacing Broom and accompanying wave of dust is fast approaching the spoons. Traction Man unravels the green threads of the Romper Suit and makes a rescue rope on which he lowers Scrubbing Brush down down to the spoons for a dramatic rescue.
When the grateful silverware offer thanks, Traction Man responds: "All in a day's work, young spoons."
Mini Grey artfully uses speech bubbles, narration boxes and other techniques of the comic book genre to tell this engaging story. The reader not only follows the adventures of the book's hero, Traction Man, but also dips into the world of the boy who receives Traction Man as a holiday gift. As the child eats dinner, Traction Man traverses the table to guard the toast. When after-dinner clean-up chores come around, Traction Man is swimming deep in the sink on a special mission to search for the Lost Wreck of the Sieve. In the tub, Traction Man is confronted with the Mysterious Toes and escapes in the most humane way possible: by tickling the toes of the boy whose imagination is creating the story. The visual narrative flows back and forth between child and toy in a meaningful way.
By the end of the book, Traction Man and Scrubbing Brush are given a moment to relax, lying comfy on a book that looks like a raft floating on a wide blue expanse of carpet. Traction Man seems comfortable in his newly-configured Green Swim Suit (which is all that is left from his Romper Suit after the spoon incident).
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Traction Man, there comes yet another sign of danger approaching our hero: a pair of scissors with bad intent in its eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth.
Grey reminds us, however, that Traction Man and Scrubbing Brush are "ready for anything."