With simplicity and quiet depth, a boy creates a challenge and meets it. In Jeremy’s isolated corner of his “three-story apartment building,” the pen-lined black-and-red bricks are dark and detailed, while on the other end, color and shading fade into blankness. This illustrative pattern continues throughout: Generous white space spotlights and protects the sparse figures and objects, giving them clarity. Jeremy (with a pen, Harold-like) draws a blue monster with a self-entitled personality. “Draw me a sandwich,” it demands, then a toaster, checkerboard, telephone and hat, never saying thank you. It departs (Jeremy’s relief is palpable) but returns and displaces Jeremy from bed. A pale-blue watercolor square, superimposed over the bed and free-floating window, gently connotes nighttime. McCarty’s distilled text doesn’t spell out intention, but “The next day, Jeremy drew a bus ticket and a suitcase.” Seeing the monster off onto an out-of-town bus leaves Jeremy next to a group of watercolor children with varying pen-lined hair. They invite him to play and he accepts—monster gone, loneliness banished. Neat and unassuming. (Picture book. 3-6)
