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HIC! by Anushka Ravishankar

HIC!

by Anushka Ravishankar ; illustrated by Christiane Pieper

Pub Date: Sept. 15th, 2017
ISBN: 978-93-83145-64-5
Publisher: Tara Publishing

 A little South Asian girl in a dress and pigtails desperately tries to rid herself of the hiccups.

She drinks a pail of water while standing on a brick, spins around until she’s sick, and recites a limerick while standing on her head, but the hiccups just keep on coming. Her attempts to banish them grow more and more bizarre and are met with great expectations, but the results are always disastrous and hilarious and have no effect on her problem. Each suggested remedy and its aftermath play out over two double-page spreads. On the first, the suggestion (all rhyme with “ick”) is printed in large type and placed on a stark white background as the girl follows the directions. The results are then depicted in all their delicious chaos with the only text a despairing “HIC” uttered by that unhappy heroine. In the end she throws away her guidebook of ideas and challenges readers to help. The silly events unfold in India, as indicated by clothing, fauna, and a cheerily busy streetscape. The bold cartoon illustrations, screen-printed in organic inks, employ only black, white, blue, and gold, and the black-haired little girl’s skin tones are in those colors as well, changing for each anti-hiccup attempt. Hiccup tales are numerous and popular with young readers, but this one has a unique, delightful twist.

Laugh-out-loud fun.

(Picture book. 4-8)