IF YOU LAUGH, I'M STARTING THIS BOOK OVER

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IF YOU LAUGH, I'M STARTING THIS BOOK OVER

Name: IF YOU LAUGH, I'M STARTING THIS BOOK OVER
Author: Chris Harris
ISBN: 978-0-316-42488-2

by Chris Harris ; illustrated by Serge Bloch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 2022

Desperation confused for hysterics.

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Harris’ latest makes an urgent plea for somber reflection.

“Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!” Right from the get-go, readers are presented with three rules for reading this book (“Don’t look at this book!” “Do look at your listener!” “Get your listener to look at you!”). But the true lesson is in the title itself: If anyone listening to this book laughs, you have to start it all over. Challenge accepted? Good. Sheer frenetic energy propels what passes for a narrative as the book uses every trick up its sleeve to give kids the giggles. Silly names, ridiculous premises, and kooky art combine, all attempting some level of hilarity. Bloch’s art provides a visual cacophony of collaged elements, all jostling for the audience’s attention. Heavily influenced by similar fourth wall–busting titles like The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992) by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith, and the more contemporary The Book With No Pictures (2014) by B.J. Novak, these attempts to win over readers and make them laugh will result in less giggles than one might imagine. In the end, the ultimate success of this book may rest less on the art or text and more on the strength of the reader’s presentation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Desperation confused for hysterics. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-316-42488-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE
by Chris Harris ; illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ALPHABET'S ALPHABET
by Chris Harris ; illustrated by Dan Santat

- BOOK REVIEW
I'M JUST NO GOOD AT RHYMING
by Chris Harris ; illustrated by Lane Smith

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TOYS GALORE

by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Bob Staake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children...

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A fizzy yet revealing romp through the toy world.

Though of standard picture-book size, Stein and illustrator Staake’s latest collaboration (Bugs Galore, 2012, etc.) presents a sweeping compendium of diversions for the young. From fairies and gnomes, race cars and jacks, tin cans and socks, to pots ’n’ pans and a cardboard box, Stein combs the toy kingdom for equally thrilling sources of fun. These light, tightly rhymed quatrains focus nicely on the functions characterizing various objects, such as “Floaty, bubbly, / while-you-wash toys” or “Sharing-secrets- / with-tin-cans toys,” rather than flatly stating their names. Such ambiguity at once offers Staake free artistic rein to depict copious items capable of performing those tasks and provides pre-readers ample freedom to draw from the experiences of their own toy chests as they scan Staake’s vibrant spreads brimming with chunky, digitally rendered objects and children at play. The sense of community and sharing suggested by most of the spreads contributes well to Stein’s ultimate theme, which he frames by asking: “But which toy is / the best toy ever? / The one most fun? / Most cool and clever?” Faced with three concluding pages filled with all sorts of indoor and outside toys to choose from, youngsters may be shocked to learn, on turning to the final spread, that the greatest one of all—“a toy SENSATION!”—proves to be “[y]our very own / imagination.”

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children everywhere. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-7636-6254-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
A TREE FOR MR. FISH
by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Peter Stein

- BOOK REVIEW
THE RUNAWAY NO-WHEELER
by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Bob Staake

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BOY AND THE BEAR
by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Peter Stein

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SEE PIP POINT

From the Adventures of Otto series

by David Milgrim & illustrated by David Milgrim ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2003

Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...

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In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.

The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.

Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)