broderick by edward ormondroyd

by Edward Ormondroyd

Hoping to become famous, Broderick practices on a tongue depressor to become the world's greatest surfing mouse.

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1969

About the author

Edward Ormondroyd grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. During WWII he served onboard a destroyer escort, participating in the invasions of Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

After the war he attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he received a bachelor's degree in English. Later he went back for a master's degree in library science.

He lived in Berkeley for 25 years, working at various jobs while he wrote children's books. He and his wife Joan moved to upstate New York in 1970. They live in the country near Ithaca, in a house designed and partly built by Edward. Their seven children are all grown and independent. They have two grandsons and a granddaughter. Edward's interests include studying piano, gardening, books, birds, flowers (wild and tame), and listening to classical music.

Reviews

[Jovon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so fun to read and it is my favorite book and I love the author so I want to meet her or him.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun picture book that provides connections to other books about mice which my kids knew and were excited to hear mentioned in a different book. Cute read, being from the Midwest, my ignorance of surfing kept it from being a 5 star book.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The dedication says, "Evan said, 'You could write a story about that,' so I did." And it reads like a bedtime story told to a child. There is very little detail -- it sort of glosses over things, describes them broadly, and doesn't use much in-the-moment or evocative detail or moments. There's a book theme, but that doesn't last. Again, reads like a spur-of-the-moment bedtime story, and I'm not a fan.

There are a few cool illustrations though -- specifically the one that looks like The Wave.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give props to the book for the protagonist loving books. Then the story veers a little randomly into a surfing story, but returns to the book theme at the end. It's surprisingly verbose for a picture book with most pages filled with lots of small type. Cute but nothing special.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mouse discovers he has a passion for surfing. He does. The illustrations are good, it is written well, just didn't grab my passion.