The Truth About My Unbelievable Summer . . .

May 1, 2016
An answer to the classic first-day-of-school question is unspooled in tall-tale fashion by the white boy with the black unruly hair in the too-small suit first met in I Didn't Do My Homework Because... (2014).His tall, long-nosed teacher, also white, asks the question, and the story starts on a beach where the boy and his dachshund find a treasure map. Immediately, a magpie steals the map, and the chase begins: from a pirate ship to an adventure with a giant squid, from a submarine to a movie set where an actress (with a long nose) in medieval dress enables the boy to retrieve the map. There's a hot air balloon trip, an unexpected rescue by his uncle's flying machine, and then a drop-off on an island where that magpie flies off with the map again, forcing the boy to continue his travels to the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and a snowy country populated by yetis. Finally, the boy and the dog find the treasure (some rather tame snorkeling masks) on the original beach. They discover underwater beauty but miss a real treasure chest. They also miss the joke that readers won't: the teacher has engineered the whole adventure! The small trim, terse, first-person narrative, and detailed, cartoonlike pen-and-colored ink drawings will have individual readers chortling, at least the first time around.Fun for a first read but unlikely to have children calling for another. (Picture book. 6-8)

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June 1, 2016

Gr 1-3-The little boy from I Didn't Do My Homework Because... tells an increasingly tall tale about his summer vacation. The excitement begins with the cover (depicting the boy and his dog entangled in the arms of an octopus) and is carried through to the endpapers (featuring the creature's suction cups). "So, what did you do this summer?" asks his teacher. He recounts a magical tale involving a treasure map, pirates, a submarine, a flying machine, yetis, and more. Careful readers will pick up on several visual clues and jokes. Spare text is enhanced by intricate cartoon illustrations in this picture book with an attractive chapter book trim size. VERDICT A fast-paced story that will keep kids chuckling and perhaps inspire their own unbelievable tall tales.-Andrea Pavlik, Huntington Public Library, NY

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