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SAM'S SANDWICH

Name: SAM'S SANDWICH
Author: David Pelham
ISBN: 0-525-44751-2

by David Pelham & illustrated by David Pelham ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1991

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Encased in thick boards to simulate slices of bread, a comic novelty: deftly phrased verse describes a sandwich Sam stacks for his innocent sister, each layer (lettuce, cheese, etc.) hiding a creature within a clever foldout (``...to really make her squirm/Sam dropped in a wriggly...[worm]''), the whole truly resembling a fat booby trap of a sandwich. Guaranteed to compel attention. (Picture book. 4-9)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-525-44751-2

Page Count: 22

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1991

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
STUFF AND NONSENSE
by David Pelham & illustrated by David Pelham

- BOOK REVIEW
TRAIL
by David Pelham & illustrated by David Pelham

IF YOU LAUGH, I'M STARTING THIS BOOK OVER

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IF YOU LAUGH, I'M STARTING THIS BOOK OVER

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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THE BOOK TREE

by Paul Czajak ; illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 2018

An excuse for Czajak to share his love of books with children, this story’s optimistic view of creativity and resistance is...

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After the mayor bans books, a young boy named Arlo discovers how to grow them.

“Beginnings were always the best part. They smelled as if anything were possible.” Arlo is so absorbed in the book he’s reading up in a tree that it slips from his hands and bonks the mayor on the head. “Books are dangerous!” the mayor cries, and he rips up every book in town. Arlo is sad, but he figures the mayor must be right; after all, he is the mayor. The town changes: Storytime is replaced by nap time; the theaters produce no plays, and the library is empty. Arlo weeps as he writes “The End” in the sand, but writing makes him determined to share stories. Then, from one of the ripped-up pages, the titular tree begins to sprout, and books flourish once more. (Conveniently, the mayor is easily convinced of their value.) Kheiriyeh’s dramatic oil paint–and-collage illustrations, in hues of beige, red, and bright blue, use characters and setting to drive home the message that books bring joy and their absence is all but tragic. The books that grow from the tree contain print in many languages: Korean, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, and more. Arlo and a number of the other townspeople are brown-skinned, the mayor and others are a shade of beige, and all have blue hair.

An excuse for Czajak to share his love of books with children, this story’s optimistic view of creativity and resistance is fairly irresistible. (Picture book. 4-9)