The Adventures of Benny by Steve Shreve

Book Review of The Adventures of Benny by Steve Shreve

The Adventures of Benny by Steve Shreve is a collection of funny adventures-stories of a small boy called Benny. Though Benny’s stories may seem somewhat lame to most of us adults, I believe most of the little boys and girls will find them outright funny. There are 5 chapters in this book. Each chapter contains a different story. The stories are not related.They are just separate adventures where Benny, a small boy is the hero. Each story has a villain. But what’s special about Benny’s stories is that even the villains are ultra-cute. Here’s the summary by Steve Shreve,

A resourceful young boy’s adventures introduce him to a host of characters, including Bigfoot, a mummy, pirates, monkeys, and his very own Booger-Man.

In the first adventure Benny befriends a Bigfoot who is awfully smelly. Bigfoot in turn rescues Benny from the clutches of a wolf. That teaches you, a friend who stinks can be pretty useful at times. In his next adventure, Benny and Uncle Howard go to Egypt and digs up the mummy of King Butthankhamen. But there is a curse that comes with the package. The mummy comes alive and chases them. They hide themselves in a room filled with snakes. Will they be able to bring the mummy to the museum? That’s all in chapter 2. 

In Chapter 3 Benny and his father goes to fishing and takes up a job in the pirate ship of Captain Long John Underwear, who along with his crew hunts The Great Man-Eating Killer Squid. They hunt the squids for the ink and sell the ink to the ballpoint pen factory. Then there’s the Booger-man - not the Boogey-man who lives in Brookfield. He wants to eat Benny on the spot. That’s when one learns why it is useful to feed your dog the hot-dogs. 

Benny’s final adventure is on Monkey Island. He gets a treasure map in a box of cereals and sets out immediately. On reaching the island the monkeys capture him, but then they release him and apologise. Together they hunt for the treasure, and give the ghost a nice beating with a shovel.

The stories are simple, nicely written. There are black-and-white sketches on almost every page. The sketches were impressive and very very cute. A Bigfoot wearing underwear and socks, a mummy chasing Benny and Uncle Howard, the ghost with specs – the sketches alone will drive children into giggling feats. The illustrations were rendered in pencil and inked in Photoshop – by Steve Shreve himself, I presume. A gifted author of Children’s fiction. The Adventures of Benny took me to a world where anything is possible.

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