Are We There Yet?

Starred review from January 11, 2016
Two parents and their son set out on a marathon car trip, headed to Grandma’s house for her birthday. “This is taking forever,” the boy groans. Suddenly—is he dreaming?—a steam locomotive appears beside their car, chased by a cowboy on horseback. Following the text around sequential panels, readers end up flipping the book upside down and turning the pages back to front as the family travels into the past. Outside, pirates fight, knights joust, dinosaurs loom. Then, just as suddenly, text and pictures right themselves and the family zooms into the future, arriving at Grandma’s house to find a space-age building in its place: “Today is October 24, 2059,” a huge screen announces. The conclusion is as neat as the bow on Grandma’s birthday gift (a clock). “Be patient,” writes Caldecott Medalist Santat (The Adventures of Beekle), dedicating the book to his son. “We have all the time in the world.” His own patience is what harnesses the energy of his riotous story and gives it a laser focus. It’s a remarkable feat—a turbocharged adventure that’s also a meditation on the relative nature of time. Ages 3–6. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

Starred review from February 15, 2016
A car trip to visit Grandma on her birthday feels like "an eternity." What happens when you just get too bored? Most parents on a car trip have heard the titular question, but in Caldecott medalist Santat's hands, the familiar trip becomes an unforgettable romp through time and space. As the moment of absolute boredom reaches "forever," a clever twist forces readers to turn the book upside down and read "backward," time also going backward. The family car travels back to the Wild West, the days of Blackbeard, medieval Europe, and ancient Egypt. As the parents grow increasingly anxious (jousting was not part of their plan), the oblivious kid in the back continues to whine, finally noticing the moment the car is in when it reaches the age of the dinosaurs. In another literal turn of the book, time now flies by too quickly. The family and other fellow time travelers--met in moments of boredom--hurtle through time into the future, arriving at Grandma's address only to find her home is no longer there, and they have missed the party. But not to worry, it is only the mind playing tricks. Employing both comic-book-style panels and full-bleed spreads, the mixed-media illustrations are full of humor, and the changes in point of view keep the telling dynamic and engaging. Mom is white, Dad slightly darker-skinned, and the party guests (when they finally arrive) are thrillingly diverse if mostly a bit long in the tooth. A multilayered, modern-day parable reminding readers there's no greater gift than the present. (Picture book. 5-8)

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January 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 3-This imaginative take on the never-ending car ride is filled with surprises. Santat, creator of Caldecott Medal-winning The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Little, Brown, 2014), begins this story with an invitation to Grandma's birthday party, featured on the copyright page. The kid in the backseat is eager for the trip, but after the first hour, he is tired and cranky. Remarks like "Are we there yet?" and "This is taking forever" serve only to annoy his parents. Despite drawing paper, electronic games, a book, and several toys, including a monkey and dinosaur, the child is bored. "But what happens when your brain becomes...TOO... bored?" This question is spread over the top, down the recto side, and upside down at the bottom of the verso, causing readers to turn the book around as they read. An arrow instructs them to turn the pages in the opposite direction, which is somewhat counterintuitive, but once they get the hang of it, the novelty will delight. As the child in the backseat continues to complain, the family car drives through the old West, onto a pirate plank, to a medieval joust, to a pyramid in ancient Egypt, through the dinosaur age, and into the future. Though initially alarmed, the family eventually enjoy the adventure and finally arrive at their destination. At this point, readers must turn the book around again in order to arrive at the party, where numerous elderly friends and relatives are eating cake, wearing party hats, and offering presents. One man squeezes the grandson's cheek as another pats him on the head, causing him to whine, "Can we go now?" While the design is clever, though potentially confusing, the illustrations, rendered in pencil, crayon, watercolor, ink, and Photoshop are filled with excitement and humorous details-as the family travel back in time, their clothing alters to fit the scene, from prairie bonnets to caveman skins. Full-spreads, giant comic panels, and alarmed expressions add to the fun. VERDICT Most collections will want to purchase this original, amusing offering.-Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2016
Grades K-2 *Starred Review* Following his Caldecott win for The Adventures of Beekle (2014), Santat offers an imaginative account of a boy's car trip to his grandmother's birthday party. What begins in excitement quickly devolves into boredom as minutes stretch into an hour. But then, readers are invited to consider what happens when their brain grows too bored. Let the interactive reading begin! The words begin to spiral around a spread featuring the boy's glazed expression, forcing the book to be rotated and read upside down. Suddenly, the slow-moving time transports the car back in history, placing it alongside a steam locomotive, a pirate ship, a jousting knight, and the newly built Sphinx in Cairo. The whole time, the parents appear startled by the changing scenery, but the boy's complaints ( My butt hurts ) continue until time stretches all the way back to the dinosaur-filled Jurassic period. Finally, he starts having fun, and time starts to fly; back around the book goes, sending the family to Grandma's at last. The gambit to get kids involved in the story works, and Santat's rich illustrationsranging from double-page spreads to comic-style panelscarry it home. The text, on the other hand, reads a bit like greeting-card advice, but the inventive format and engrossing artwork will make kids happy to go along for the ride.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2016
How do you follow up a Caldecott Medal win? If you're Dan Santat (The Adventures of Beekle), you turn the picture book form on its head. Using comic-style panels, text bubbles, and vibrant splashes of color in his mixed-media illustrations, Santat puts his family of three -- driver Dad, passenger Mom, bored-in-the-backseat boy -- in a nondescript orange sedan and sets them on the road to Grandma's birthday party. The boy unleashes a litany of time-honored complaints ( I feel sickMy butt hurts ), but this isn't just any old road-trip story. A line spiraling around the perimeter of the page connects single-word text boxes, leading readers to turn the book upside-down to orient images and text. The surrounding vehicles appear old-fashioned, and an arrow instructs readers to turn the page on the left side of the (upside-down) spread. The next several spreads feature the boy's tired complaints in humorous contrast to his freaked-out parents' attempts to navigate increasingly outlandish settings: a pirate ship, medieval times, ancient Egypt, prehistoric days. Finally, as the story reorients itself (right-side-up and left-to-right), the family's time-travels take them too far into a vaguely Blade Runner-esque future: We missed the party, the kid sighs. But, thankfully, it's all (possibly) a dream. Visual clues (and a few Easter eggs: can you spot Beekle?) add depth and humor. While the text occasionally veers toward adult-centeredness ( The road is full of twists and turnsso sit back and enjoy the ride ), the visual presentation is so strikingly inventive that young readers won't mind a bit. sam bloom

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)