Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom

Frankie Pickle leads a life of unending adventure and excitement. He's a daring archeologist, a heroic superhero, a brilliant surgeon, and more. At least, that's what his life is like in his imagination. In real life, Frankie's mom won't stop bugging him to clean up his room. Until one day, she tells him that he never has to clean his room again ... as long as he's prepared for the consequences. Now Frankie is on Cloud Swine. He can make as big a mess in his room as he wants, and soon he's not bothering with clean clothes or even bathing. But when the chaos in his room spirals out of control, can even the heroic Frankie Pickle find a way to stop it?

Closet of Doom is presented in a unique fashion, as a chapter book integrated with a show more graphic novel, and the story switches back and forth seamlessly between the two formats. This unusual structure can serve three functions for young readers. The first is to introduce early readers to comic books. This is not as simple a task as it sounds, since storytelling through sequential art has its own conventions (for example, how emotions like surprise are shown) and these are not always intuitively obvious to new readers. Second, the graphic novel portions can serve as a “bridge” between text chapters, allowing children who have not yet mastered reading to follow part of the plot assisted by the context of visual storytelling. Finally, this same process can work in reverse, enticing a child who may be comfortable with comic books to begin to tackle the greater developmental challenge of reading chapter books.

The story of Closet of Doom may seem simplistic, but its message is far from trivial. Learning to keep one's living space clean and ordered, with “a place for everything and everything in its place”, can be especially challenging for young children. This is made harder by the fact that so few adults have learned this same lesson, and that many of us were raised by children of the Depression who never threw anything away. Learning to deal with all of your “stuff” is an essential coping skill for modern life but also one that most parents are ill-equipped to teach. And while lessons like these are very important for young people to learn, they are also the same lessons that they are the most resistant to learning when being lectured at by adults. Closet of Doom harnesses the power of storytelling to immerse children in an enjoyable tale where they can figure out this lesson for themselves.

Frankie's deal with his mom is the center of this story, but his dad features prominently in the book as well. Frankie's dad is man of many talents who can repair a car or an action figure, but who can also whip up a batch of waffles or freshly-baked cookies. It's nice to see a dad who is not a stereotype - in either direction - and being capable of taking on any role around the house is a necessity for many real-life dads in single dad or two dad households. Closet of Doom is a book that is fun and educational for kids, helpful for emerging readers, and good for dads, too. Review by Book Dads show less

Frankie Pickle is an explorer, an adventurer, on the track of missing artifacts, like....the last breakfast waffle! He's also a fourth grade kid who just doesn't want to clean up his room. Frankie thinks he's solved everything when his mom tells him "This is your space. Do with it what you want." But Frankie soon finds out there are less than pleasant consequences to a swinish life and he must face his greatest adventure ever - the Closet of Doom!

Pros: Frankie is an engaging character and will resonate with kids. One of my favorite scenes is immediately after his "deal" when he goes to make a sandwich in the kitchen; and leaves everything out. "We have an understanding" he tells his older sister. The comics are lively and kids will show more enjoy the juxtaposition of Frankie's black and white daydreams and his actual adventures. I appreciate that Frankie is given a choice and decides to face up to the consequences of that choice, although the story doesn't descend into didacticism.

Cons: I can see a lot of kids liking this book, but it hit several of my buttons and I just....don't like it. First, the don't clean your room up until it's so messy horrible things happen is not a new idea - it's one of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's cures. Although I have to say, having a parade go by your window and not being able to escape from your room is no more believable than waking up from a nightmare and cleaning a week's worth of mess in one night....without waking anybody up. This cure, assuming it works at all (some kids would live perfectly happily in a huge mess - and do) requires that the kid has his own bedroom and owns enough stuff to blockade himself in.

I didn't really like the slightly-changed-brand-names thing, although that may keep the book from getting outdated quite as fast. Will kids know that "Yugimon" cards are referring to Yu-Gi-Oh cards in another five years? Or that Avril the Traveler is really Dora the Explorer? It felt kind of forced to me. What really irritated me - the Dryer Sheet Fairy. Now, I'm sure Frankie knows it's really his mom mysteriously collecting, washing, drying, folding, and putting away his laundry. But he's 9. If he's old enough to fix himself a sandwich and use the vacuum cleaner, he's old enough to do his own laundry!! It's a personal peeve when parents, especially moms, clean up after their kids. Of course, these things (like the baby watching television - bad! bad!) make the story realistic. They just irritate me personally.

Verdict: Aside from my personal peeves, this is a fun story and will really grab reluctant readers.

ISBN: 978-1416964841; Published May 2009 by Simon & Schuster; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library show less

Frankie Pickle is a little boy who imagines that everyday experiences are super hero adventures. Frankie's story is told in chapters, but when he becomes a superhero, the book's format changes to comics. Frankie is a very likable character and the switch from chapters to comics and back again kept the story fresh and interesting. My six-year-old son loved this one!

Cute graphic/early chapter book hybrid about a boy with a wild imagination tackling everyday problems. In this first installment, his mother lets him stop cleaning his room with the understanding that he must deal with the consequences. Reminded me of [b:Julian Rodriguez|3276725|Julian Rodriguez|Alexander Stadler|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255700405s/3276725.jpg|3313010] and [b:Captain Underpants|207266|The Adventures of Captain Underpants|Dav Pilkey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172685944s/207266.jpg|3234368]. I wouldn't be surprised if this caught on in a big way.

Grades 2-5
Even if kids aren't familiar with all the allusions to Indiana Jones, this hybrid graphic novel has a lot of guy appeal. Franklin Lorenzo Piccolini (aka Frankie Pickle) finds himself in lots of life-or-death tight spots with his trusty sidekick Argyle... even if they are mostly in his imagination. One of the banes of his existence is his mom's requirement that he keep his room clean. When she finally concedes defeat and tells him that she will no longer get on him about his room, he couldn't be happier: justice has prevailed! But as time goes by and his room gets more and more disgusting, he finds himself facing his biggest challenge yet-- the CLOSET OF DOOM. A fun quick read.

Actually not bad. Frankie's real life story is interspersed with graphic novel-style pages for the action scenes that he imagines. A fine-don't-clean-your-room-but-you-have-to-deal-with-what-happens story, a la Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

A boy called Frankie got a messy room and his mom don't help him to clean it, so he kept it dirty. But a few days after he found out that he don't have any clothes to wear and no space in his room, so he have to clean it. This book is good for people that don't like to clean their room.