It's Not Easy Being Number Three

October 26, 2015
Dernavich, a New Yorker cartoonist with a distinctively angular and chunky scratchboard style, makes his children’s book debut with an offbeat story of a numeral in search of a meaningful existence. Number Three “doesn’t want to be a number anymore,” so he leaves the quantifying life behind (and his fellow numbers in the lurch) to explore life as a shape. Dernavich has fun seeing threes in all kinds of places (like the steering wheel of an airplane), and there’s an enjoyable seek-and-find aspect to the story as readers locate Three standing in for the toes of an elephant, the loops of a shoelace, the hooks of a coatrack, and more. Three’s career explorations start to drag on after a while, but the conceit comes together in the final pages, when Three goes undercover and discovers, à la It’s a Wonderful Life, that the world without him is a pretty bleak place. By book’s end, the poker-faced quality of Dernavich’s renderings makes the possibility of an entirely numberless existence feel fresh and funny. Ages 3–7. Agent: Sorche Fairbank, Fairbank Literary Representation.

Starred review from October 15, 2015
When Number Three feels bored with being a number, he seeks other uses for his highly distinguishable shape. The language is direct, even edgy, but with child-accessible vocabulary and concepts. The first two double-page spreads, accompanied by engaging, colorful artwork, present the dilemma: "Do you know Number Three? I mean, do you really know Number Three? / You might think you do. After all, numbers are everywhere. But sometimes numbers get bored and want to do something else. And they really wish they could just quit being a number for a while. / That was exactly what Number Three did one day." In tune with the needs of early readers, Number Three is spelled out in the text but is pictured as a large, often three-dimensional Arabic numeral. The illustrations invite children to find the familiar shape as Number Three tries such jobs as being a camel's humps and a pair of eyeglasses. When he thinks he has found his ultimate calling as a sculpture, there is plenty of humor in the drawings depicting the end of that honeymoon, including the degradations inflicted by weather, pigeons, and dogs. Funniest of all is the state of chaos into which Number Three's companion numbers have been thrown, until the inevitable, happy conclusion. An acclaimed cartoonist in the adult world has created a solid hit for children. (Picture book. 3-7)

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January 1, 2016
Preschool-G This debut picture book for cartoonist Dernavich turns the traditional quest story on its head. In it, Number Three quits the world of scoreboards, speed-limit signs, cell-phone pads, and clock faces to find a new career. Three hits on becoming a huge sculpture, but winter, pigeon poop, and loneliness sour him on that job. Three goes to the state fair for some fun but discovers that it's been canceled because he's missing from the numbers. Number Three is usually depicted as a big blue numeral outfitted in sunglasses, a baseball cap, and sneakers, but Dernavich's illustrations cleverly show how Three's shape appears on a variety of objects, like an anchor, elephant toes, camel humps, and an airplane steering wheel. This is an engaging way to draw young viewers into recognizing shapes. Boldly colored, humor-laden illustrations, created with india ink on scratchboard, are as charming as Number Three is. In a warming resolution, Three realizes he's most useful just being himself. Pair with Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit (2013).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)