Not a fan of this book. Mr. Clutterbuck's friends just lets his friend sleepwalk into dangerous situations. FYI - it's ok to wake a sleepwalker when they're walking into traffic! I didn't like the message of this book and it needs better translation in parts.

I love the illustration style here. Very cute and cartoony. The plot is okay. The direction is obvious pretty early on but I'm sure little kids will enjoy it.

'Goodnight, Mr. Clutterbuck' by Mauri Kunnas with translation by Jill Timbers is a story about a poor creature who can't understand why he is so tired during the day, but the reader will know why.

Every night, Mr. Clutterbuck has a routine so that he could get a good night's sleep. It includes brushing his teeth, drinking a glass of warm milk, and tucking his guinea pig Gus in for the night. But every night, Mr. Clutterbuck is the busiest, noisiest sleepwalker in his town. Poor Gus has his hands full keeping Mr. Clutterbuck safe. Along the way, he manages to solve mysteries in his town, but what about all those missing spoons?

It's a really funny story which is only funnier with the great illustrations. I feel so bad for little Gus who is fully aware of all the close calls that Mr. Clutterbuck gets in to. I think this would be fa fun book to read aloud with kids.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Elsewhere Editions, Archipelago, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Goodnight, Mr. Clutterbuck was a did-not-finish for me. The text was too overwhelming for a picture book to me. However, I loved the guinea pig! (But unfortunately, all my DNFs get only 1 star.) I’m sure other people will enjoy reading about Gus = and Mr. Clutterbuck!

~Disclaimer~
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.
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Mr. Clutterbuck gets ready and goes to bed. Unbeknownst to him he is a sleepwalker. He makes his way through town every night solving people problems in his sleep. The illustrations of this book are really cute and detailed. There is a lot to look at and find.


3/5 ⭐

*thank you to Steerforth Pre­ss and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

2 stars.
While I liked the sound of this from the description, and I also really like the cover, the story had potential but just wasnt for me. The illustrations are really good. Some of them have alot of detail so its nice to just take a bit extra time to go over them before turning the page. I would like to give this another go at some stage and see what I think of it a second time round, now that I know what to expect.
So, if you are trying to decide to give this a go or not, id recommend to try it.

I loved this book from start to finish. The hilarious and very detailed illustrations are amazing. They are full of action, humour and emotion. They are brilliant!

Mr. Clutterbuck is a lethargic, kind of boring goat by day but boy does he change his demeanour during the nighttime hours. You see, Mr. Clutterbuck is a sleepwalker and his nightly body guard is Gus, his loyal and loving guinea pig. Gus sticks with him through thick and thin trying to keep his owner out of danger and safely back home to his bed. All Mr. Clutterbuck's friends kindly ask him to join them to go rollerskating, to a cookout or to participate in karaoke, but alas, he declines each invitation opting to have his familiar bedtime rituals and then head off to his bed.

Once asleep his nightly adventures lead him on wild and wonderful escapades. He breaks up motorcycle gang rivals, rescues Wally Wurst's sausage business from cashing and burning, causes havoc and destruction due to a humungous mustard spill he incurred and even becomes a rock band's lead singer (even though he cannot sing), just to name a few.

His bravery and bizarre antics do not go unnoticed by the local town folk. With very grateful hearts they descend upon his home to offer their praise and thanks to him. They give the confused and rather stunned Mr. Clutterbuck the ideal gift that a sleepwalker could ever dream of having. The ending is spot on perfect! This book will be thoroughly enjoyed by both younger and older audiences. The excellent detailed illustrations will have kids going back again and again to revel in their complexities. This book is translated from Finnish by Jill Timbers. I highly recommend it.

The illustrations are fun and the main star of this cluttered story. Mr. Clutterbuck is a sleepwalker and there are certainly a lot of shenanigans that could be fun, but that's where author Mauri Kunnas misses the mark. The potential was huge, but the execution lacked the brevity needed to make an impact. I even thought Mr. Clutterbuck's sleepwalking noises and his pet Gus's reactions -- from the "Foxtrot rumba..." and "Upsy downsy..." -- lacked the charm and rhythm to enthrall a child.

I believe this has the potential to be really cute and fun for a young age group. The artwork is silly, and nicely done. I really like how the art goes with the text. The story itself is really silly and just what a toddler would probably find hilarious.

4★
I absolutely love the illustrations, which are so reminiscent of Richard Scarry's wonderful work many years ago. The details, the ridiculous, out-of-place objects (lawnmower on someone's sloping roof, car perched on another), the colour and the action are great.

Mr. Clutterbuck is a goat with a pet/friend guinea pig, Gus. He eats only healthy carrots and enjoys a glass of warm milk before bed. They settle down for the night . . . until, Mr. Clutterbuck gets a serious case of the wanders and takes off into the dark, crossing the road, sound asleep with his eyes closed.

Dear little Gus. with a look of terror, leaps into the middle of the road holding a small STOP sign to protect Mr. Clutterbuck.

Mr. Clutterbuck trips into a shopping trolley and mayhem ensues as he ploughs through a line of washing and careens headlong into the busy middle of town.

[My Goodreads review includes an illustration of Mr. Clutterbuck 'wearing' some laundry over his horns and across his face as he tears down the hill toward the bikies.]

He and Gus end up back at home, and in the morning, Mr. Clutterbuck wonders why his coat rack is covered with laundry.

Each night brings another adventure, through which Mr. Clutterbuck snores soundly, sometimes filling himself up with food (so much for nothing but healthy carrots!) and exhausting poor, loyal, wee Gus!

The lively colour and action are terrific, the story less so. (5* for art and 3* for story) But kids (and people like me) will have so much fun finding all the little things that we'll forgive the story. See if you can spot the bird (?) sipping a drink from above while enjoying the chaos below. And the tiny, bewildered cop.

Thanks to NetGalley and Elsewhere Editions for the review copy from which I've shared a picture. I do have an issue with a couple of the translations which I hope will be corrected before publication.

Weird, but not weird in a way I think the kids I work with would enjoy.

Good Night Mr Clutterbuck is a children's book that has been translated from Finnish. It is absolutely adorable, and I didn't fall asleep last night until I had finished it.

Mr Clutterbuck is a goat that has a habit of sleepwalking. During the day, he is mild mannered, and very shy. He tries to avoid social situations as often as possible. He is completely different in the night, when his true self takes over. I feel he is a true representation of a lot of humans. We tend to worry about what other people will think of us, but if that is taken away, great things can happen.

Of course, the book poses the question, "Who took all the spoons?" The answer is hilarious and surprising.

The illustrations are wonderful and bring the story to a whole new level. I enjoyed looking at all the details in the illustrations just as much as the actual story. This is an adorable children's book that everyone, no matter the age, will enjoy. Highly recommended.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.
Author: Mauri Kunnas
Publisher: Elswhere Editions
Publication Date: 28 Nov 2017

An interesting story about a subject rarely talked about in children's books...sleepwalking. lot's of silliness and surprising things happen throughout. The translation of text to English from Finnish is a bit awkward in spots.
---Ronb

I loved this story, it was a great concept and had a fab ending! A book that I can see being a favourite that gets read again and again - great images!

This is a really, really good picture book. Yes, it has quite a lot of words to it, but the artworks themselves are also crammed with detail, and the right reader will be poring over these adventures of a sleepwalking goat for a very long time. The story has a simplicity to it, but the amounts of clever cause and effect prove it to have been put together with a lot of care and craft. The layout is a little higgledy-piggledy at times, but on the whole this is wonderful.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Eh, that is all I can say from this book. It looked really good, the blurb sounded fun, but now after reading it, and almost falling asleep (sorry, not sleepwalking), I just wish I had skipped this book.

It still had its good moments, but most of the time it was just a repeat over and over again with predictable endings. And it got pretty boring. Plus the fact that he had no clue what happened, even after watching the telly or listening to neighbours or checking the newspapers. You have x item on your head or in your home, the tv is clearly talking about that object or something to do with that object and you just don't think about it.

Plus if I were Gus, I would just have stopped going after the guy after a while. He seems to never do any harm + it always goes well.

I also found it weird that so many people knew about the sleepwalking, but until the ending, didn't care to help him out. I know they don't want to wake up the guy, but couldn't they at least help him out before things happened?

I did like the underlying spoon mystery plot, it was quite fun, though of course I already knew what would happen. 

Plus I found Mr. Clutterbuck quite unlikeable. Well, at least, during the day. During the night I quite liked him as he finally dared to express what he truly felt. I just hope that he will be doing a bit more with friends, neighbours, and family.

And just like with many of these books that feature animals as main characters, I wonder why some are pets and some are walking about doing their work, fun, and other things. The dogs in the sausage story for instance were pets (or strays), yet there are also dogs in the town, fully clothed and going about their business. I guess one should just not think about it. :P

The art was one of my favourite things, I just love the style, it reminded me of Richard Scarry's art.
Though there are some things that could be improved, however that is not the illustrator's fault, but rather the translators. The signs on the stores, on the train, just looked terrible. Like someone erased the original language and just typed the English words over it.

But still I am disappointed. It could have been so much more. Oh well, at least I had a good dose of lovely art. :)

When I was working in a library, back in my college days, there was a little boy who kept checking out the same Richard Scarey book. He loved looking at the pictures, which were quite detailed. It was probably Richard Scarey's world, or some such book like that.

Although this book is nothing like that, as this book is about Mr. Clutterbuck, who is a goat who sleepwalks, the drawings have that same detailed look of the Richard Scarey books, where <em>things</em> are happening all the way through the book, while the main story of Mr. Clutterbuck's night walks takes the center stage.

Cute story of how a sleep walking goat can both cause havoc, and yet save the day, from finding the spoon thief, to stopping the motorcycle gangs from frightens to help a musical group produce a hit record.

Lots of fun,and I think kids will enjoy reading, or having this read to them. Doesn't lose anything in the translation.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This was pretty funny! How can one miss with a sleep walking goat?! This is the busiest sleeping goat ever; he has sooo many funny adventures when sleeping It's a good thing he has little Gus to keep him safe! Kids are going to crack up reading this hilarious story! The illustrations are priceless!

Great Drawings, Bumpy Story

The setup here is that mild Mr. Clutterbuck has wild adventures while sleepwalking.

The illustrations are fun, and work on a couple of levels. Like the books of Richard Scarry, or the Mr. Postmouse books, the drawings energetically illustrate the action of the story, but loaded around the edges and hidden within the scenes, are oodles of little jokes and bits of business. Just as Scarry had Goldbug peeking out of every page to emphasize some bit of the story, so too here do we get Mr. Clutterbuck's pet guinea pig, Gus, (his companion and protector), reacting to the chaos caused by Clutterbuck's sleepwalking. Plus, neighbors and onlookers, and neighborhood pets, and who knows what else, are shown reacting to the events of the story. The overall effect is that there is a lot to find and to see on every page, and lots of visual jokes and puns to recognize and appreciate. Not only does this make the book fun, it greatly enhances its rereadability and it rewards careful observation.

The story itself is broken up into several different nights of sleepwalking and several different adventures, (most of which are a bit strange and off-kilter), and this almost chapter structure probably helps with littler readers. It also means that if one adventure isn't that interesting, well, there are more to come. By the end, though, everything comes together in a satisfying and cheerfully upbeat conclusion.

That said, some of the storytelling does wander around a bit. Mr. Clutterbuck mostly just mumbles nonsense words and rhymes while sleepwalking, and the antics sometimes have an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feel. I'm not quite sure how the translator moved this from Finnish to English, but the end result is that the story sometimes feels unmoored. On the other hand, when a story involves doing the cha-cha in a railyard while graffiti artists look on, or riding a grocery cart into the middle of a motorcycle drag race, I'm not sure what your narrative options are except to go with the flow.

At bottom, I was impressed with the drawings, and willing to go along with the bumpy narrative, and mostly just amused by the cleverness and energy of the project. This might be best for an ambitious little reader with a taste for the silly absurd, but isn't that a nice place to be?

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Goodnight, Mr. Clutterbuck by Mauri Kunnas. Translated from the Finnish by Jill Timbers.
Archipelago. Elsewhere Editions. Mauri Tapio Kunnass, one of Finland's most beloved children's writers, has written and illustrated this picture book now presented to the American market. His brilliantly colored drawings are rich with color and cover a wide variety of clothed animals as they humorously bring Mr. Clutterbuck’s chaotic sleepwalking adventures to a close. Thanks to NetGalley, Archipelago and Elsewhere Editions for providing this ebook for review.