Did You Take the B from My _ook?

April 3, 2017
The Stantons, an Australian husband-and-wife duo, launch the Books that Drive Kids Crazy! series by appealing to children’s eagerness to correct something they know to be wrong. “Do you have favorite things?” asks an unseen narrator. “I have favorite things. They are bats and beaches and bread and bushes and bulldozers.” When a sneeze blows all of the Bs out of the book, words’ meanings get garbled. A butterfly becomes an “_utterfly,” a beetle an “_eetle,” and blue boots “_lue _oots.” Simple line drawings featuring bright pops of color document the growing chaos (“What? The _eetle is wearing the _lue _oots and jumping on the _ed!”), which can only be contained with readers’ help: “Come back B!!!!” It’s a winning bit of interactive silliness that offers insight into the way small changes can have big results where words are concerned. Ages 4–8.

March 15, 2017
A metafictive picture _ook with playful typography to _oot.The opening text directly addresses readers, listing some of the narrator's favorite things without ever visually depicting said narrator. In fact, there are no pictures at all in the first few double-page spreads, only text. The first page reads, in part: -I have favorite things. They are bats and beaches and bread and bushes and bulldozers.- On the next page readers are invited to say -bubububub...bobobobob...brrrrrrrrr.- The final statement indicates a chill in the air, and the narrator sneezes in the next spread with a swirling -Aaaaacchhhoooooo!!!!- across the pages. This instigates the titular premise: the sneeze apparently does away with all b's, and the text is written accordingly while accompanying pictures depict the b-free objects. -I love my _ed,- reads the text next to a line drawing of a bed, for example. After several such spreads accompanied by pictures that cumulatively add the b-free things together in a silly scene of a _eetle, _utterfly, and a couple _ulls jumping on the _ed, the narrator implores readers to call for the letter b to -come _ack!- And back it comes for a celebratory ending. Throughout, bold, graphic typography provides cues for tone in reading aloud, while the simple digital illustrations add to ample metafictive humor. _ravo! (Picture book. 3-7)

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July 1, 2017
In _ook?, an omniscient narrator sneezes, inadvertently jettisoning its favorite letter from the book ("Come _ack!"). In Ball, the narrator makes preposterous statements ("This is a scary monster" faces a simple drawing of a princess, for example) and won't countenance reader objections ("I think you're a bit confused"). This is meta at its best: conceptually and visually straightforward and unabatingly silly.

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