about the book
One night, Wilma and Walter Wimbledon and their four children, are wakened, one by one, first early in the night, then later, and later, and later, by mysterious noises. Every time, good-dad Walter gets up to check out what’s going on. Every time, he returns with the response “It’s only Stanley.” At first it is only Stanley howling at the Moon, but as the night goes on, the noises get more specific.
Stanley, a beagle, is a diehard fixer-upper, but for some reason, he always does his chores in the middle of the night. For example: “The Wimbledons were sleeping./ It was later than before./ When Wendy heard a clanking sound,/ Below her bedroom floor./ ‘That’s very odd,’ said Walter./ Then they heard another clank!/ ‘It’s only Stanley,’ Walter said./ “He fixed the oil tank.’”
The oil tank, the bathtub drain, the old TV… All are on Stanley’s chore list. But is he really fixing them? Or is he, just maybe, turning the Wimbledon house into a rocket ship to fly off to the Moon?
about the author
Jon Agee grew up just down up the street from the Hudson River in Nyack, New York. In his childhood, there always seemed to be some art project going on in his house. Most of his own early work includes airplanes, racing cars, and football players—things on the move.
His first published drawing was The Rat Race, a pack of rats running along a highway, which was published in the New York Times Op Ed page while he was still in high school. After graduating from The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City, Jon collected all his doodles and visited the offices of a bunch of editors, but no one would take his stuff. Then he wrote a story for kids to go with some of his pictures. He called it If Snow Falls, and Frances Foster, an editor at Random House, decided to take a chance on it. It paid off!
Since then, Jon has written a lot of other picture books and illustrated many more for other authors. One of his proudest moments came with his fourth book, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau. It was a hit, but one of the first people to read it and like it was Maurice Sendak himself!
Jon and his wife, Audrey, live in San Francisco.
Source:
Author website
Also by Jon Agee:
Lion Lessons. Dial. July 2016.
Little Santa. Dial. 2013.
The Other Side of Town. Michael di Capua Books. 2012.
Mr. Putney’s Quacking Dog. Michael di Capua Books. 2010.
Terrific. Disney Press. 2005.
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