Tony’s homework routine consists of reading a comic book and falling asleep, and tonight’s like any other—almost. “As Tony slept, his favorite #1 pencil decided to do Tony’s homework,” and once the pencil starts, all the other writing implements join in, with decidedly chaotic results when the fountain pen gets overexcited. As metafiction goes, this effort comes off as more contrived than clever. While kids will enjoy the squabbling of the pencil, pens and eraser, none of the characters is fully developed (and how many kids these days will recognize a fountain pen?), and the resolution, while satisfying enough (Tony gets a B), doesn’t flow naturally from the setup. Tony wrote another draft; too bad his creators didn’t do the same. (Picture book. 6-10)
