Professor Wormbog's Gloomy Kerploppus
Mercer Mayer ~ Golden Books, 1977
As I was born during the era of the "scratch & sniff" book, they all hold a certain nostalgia for me. Even though each scratch scent was unique, they all carried the same undertone. So much so, that even today, I can differentiate a "scratch & sniff" smell from a regular smell, instantly. The "Golden Scratch & Sniff" books were popular during their time, a favorite being Bambi's Fragrant Forest which was given to me by my father the first birthday after my parent's were divorced, no doubt purchased in an airport gift shop. Man, do the smells in that book take me back.
But that's neither here nor there... Mercer Mayer being the Golden boy and fad-catcher that he was, hopped on the fragrant train with this Book of Great Smells starring the notorious Professor Wormbog. Sadly, my copy is missing the first page and the last, so I can't tell you how it begins or ends. Only what it smells like in the middle.
When the Prof's Kerploppus gets gloomy...
"Oh dear," thought the professor. "I had better call Doctor Windbag. Surely he will know what to do. After all, he is a doctor."Doctor Windbag was just fixing himself a cucumber sandwich when the professor called. He put the sandwich in his hat and rushed right over.
"Oh, my, yes," said the doctor. "Your Kerploppus certainly does look gloomy. The best thing to do is bathe him in fresh cucumber juice. Call me if he doesn't seem better."
After a slew of failed remedies and after scratching and sniffing some cucumbers, paint and coconuts, you are fully aware that you are smack dab in the middle of a Mayer book. And when a x-ray shows it's actually a boot the Kerploppus swallowed that is causing the woe, you wanna slap yourself silly for not noticing the Prof's been missing one shoe the entire time. Ha!
Not the best of the Mayer bunch, but what do you expect in Smell-D? A must-have for the Mayer fan, none-the-less.
Also by:Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp
One Monster After Another
Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-A-Zoo
Me and My Flying Machine
Beauty and the Beast
A Special Trick
Bubble Bubble
OOPS
One Frog Too Many
How the Trollusk Got His Hat
Little Monster at Work
AH-CHOO
The Bird of Time
Herbert the Timid Dragon
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There are a couple other Professor Wormbog books; we rather like
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Professor-Wormbog-Search-Zipperump-Zoo/dp/157768687X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307461652&sr=1-2
available used for more than $50, wow!
i just sold my second copy to a lucky reader for $20!
ReplyDeleteI miss scratch n sniff stickers : )
ReplyDeleteAwesome! We love Professor Wormbog. Never knew we could smell him too ;-)
ReplyDeleteI noticed on Amazon that Mercer Mayer is re-releasing some of his 70s monster classics this summer! But no scratch and sniff. There was a SEALED copy of this on eBay about two years ago (with the rose sticker on the shrink wrap, do you remember that sticker? I sure did when I saw it!). I got outbid at the last second. My two copies are pretty low on "sniffableness." There is another scratch and sniff Mercer Mayer book that has since been de-sniffified... "Little Monster's Scratch and Sniff Mystery" (now known as "Little Monster Private Eye: The Smelly Mystery")
ReplyDeleteI really hope they aren't like those early 2000s reprints. They lost the wonderul size and colors of those early Goldens.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite books. (In the end, it turns out that the Kerploppus ate his shoe, which is why he was gloomy...)
ReplyDeleteDear Antmusic,
ReplyDeleteThe copy that you saw was a book I sold. It was "Little Monster's Scratch and Sniff Mystery." It had the original rose sample sticker on the front, and was in original shrink wrap. It sold for $99.99. I purchased over 300 of the Golden Scratch and Sniff books from the Golden Book Company, in 1999, before they closed. They had back copies of every book they ever printed, and they sold them all very cheaply. The Golden Scratch and Sniff Books were all still in shrink wrap with sample rose stickers. I got some of each of the fifteen titles except "Professor Wormbog's Gloomy Kerploppus." I still have about 100 of them left and will be posting more on Ebay soon.