Warning

June 17, 2013
Mixed messages about reading abound, from Michaela Muntean and Pascal Lemaitre’s Do Not Open This Book! to Cece Meng and Joy Ang’s I Will Not Read This Book and Jesse Klausmeier and Suzy Lee’s Open This Little Book. Lehrhaupt’s debut predictably counts on curious readers to ignore the dire warning and its accompanying threat, “You don’t want to let the monkeys out.” As pages turn, lemurs, baboons, and rhesus monkeys stalk into the spreads, where they pluck at the printed words and paint trees for themselves. The narrator’s uninspired pleas to readers (“Can you stop now? Everything used to be so good”) scaffold Forsythe’s (My Name Is Elizabeth!) primitive, earth-tone watercolors of the escalating melee. When a flock of toucans joins the troublemaking monkeys, and a giant alligator emerges from the right margin, readers get to be part of the solution: “You can catch them all in this book!” If Forsythe’s grainy illustrations echo Jon Klassen’s picture books, the mood in this outing is light and message-free. Ages 4–8. Illustrator’s agent: Judith Hansen, Hansen Literary.

Debut author Lehrhaupt and New York Times Notable Children's Book illustrator Forsythe (My Name Is Elizabeth!, 2011) team up for a laugh-out-loud romp through monkey-infested pages. From the title and the endpapers' warning signs ("I guess you don't mind being mauled by mo___s") to the opening pages' admonishments not to venture further, the narrator repeatedly warns readers not to open this book. Those who do not heed these pleas release a troop of artistic monkeys that wreak havoc on the book itself. Nothing is safe from these wild invaders--not the art and not the text. When the narrator again urges readers to turn back, toucans join the fracas. Forsythe uses the same warm palette for the toucans as the monkeys, adding a nice continuity to an otherwise strange addition that slows down this well-paced story. Before the toucans can do much, an alligator shows up, frightening everyone. With chaos reigning supreme, the narrator turns to readers for help in laying out a plan to snare the animals inside the book. Forsythe's digitally rendered art is hilariously expressive and laugh-worthy in its own right, and it is well-paired with Lehrhaupt's spare comic text, successfully creating a book that is enjoyable both to read and behold. In the tradition of humorous metafictive offerings of the past, this celebration of chaos is a veritable festival of fun. (Picture book. 3-7) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 1-Children won't be able to resist the urge to turn the page as they wade through caution tape, warning signs, and scenes of chaos. The madcap mayhem includes monkeys stealing the illustrator's tools to paint their own drippy forest, a flock of swooping toucans, and an alligator sprawled across several spreads. Only the introduction of a banana trap can possibly save the story. The witty text is direct, and the art soars and leaps as much as the animals. Forsythe's digital art features a subtle palette of browns and grays and the characters are rendered in a bold contemporary style with simple broad strokes. In the grand tradition of books that warn children away from reading them, such as John Perry's The Book That Eats People (Tricycle, 2009), this one invites readers into the action. More fun than a barrel of monkeys.-Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI

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