The Books

The Blunder of the Rogues

by Tim Egan

Hardcover, 32 pages

Published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (1999-03-26)

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Amazon Description

With his trademark wit and wry sense of humor, Tim Egan spins a tale of a life of crime. The Rogues, a shamefully poor bowling team, distraught at their inability to do anything well, are seduced into a life of crime. At last they believe they have stumbled upon something they might just be good at. Lured further into the seedy underworld by Vincent the Goat and the Sheep Lady, they are persuaded to attempt a bank heist. But this goes awry and the four friends wind up in the slammer with seven years' hard labor, and plenty of time to think about the error of their ways. In his most hilarious work to date, Tim Egan once again deftly delivers his point with offbeat humor and delightful illustrations and leaves us with a happy, unexpected ending.

One Potato Review

Here is a thoughtful - some might even say liberal - treatment of crime and punishment. The animals here are really just a bunch of losers and petty vandals (bad at bowling, bad at everything, is the rationalization they cook up) who get in over their heads with a criminal mastermind, the sheep-lady, “a weird and scary little ball of wool.” Of course they get busted, they do their time, and they emerge the better, and more enlightened, for it, though the tone of the storytelling remains light-hearted and sometimes even comical. Whatever their burdens and respective salvations, each of these hoodlums - a rat, skunk, a walrus and a gorilla - is incredibly likable from beginning to end. A great book for children who are fascinated with bad guys, whether you approve of that fascination or not. 

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