Uh Oh

OH NO!
(Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World)
Written by Mac Barnett, Illustrated by Dan Santat
Hyperion Book (June 1, 2010)
Ages 4-8

Having read and loved Mac Barnett's Brixton Brothers' CASE OF THE CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY, I could not wait to get my hands on his picture book OH NO!, illustrated by Dan Santat.

Let me just say that it is a visual feast, a gloriously illustrated graphic-novel-style-picture-book-that-defies-picture-book-convention. This is good and not so good. The good is that it is delicious eye candy from cover to cover. Dan Santat is a genius. Period. As someone who volunteers for a reading foundation, handing out free books by the hundreds, I know that kids would dive-in headfirst for this golden nugget.

The not so good is that I would be there to pull them back from the plunge and point out a book with an actual plot. Because the truth is that there's no there there. It's a premise (what happens when a girl's science project destroys the world?) with an unfulfilled promise.

I could add a spoiler alert here, but the subtitle sort of gives it all away: How My Science Project Destroyed the World. That about sums it up. Santat's stunning comic book illustrations show how a girl's (a girl, yay!) science project destroys the world. To her (and Barnett's) credit, she does try to fix the problem...once, by repeating it. So much for story arc. 

In a chilling way, it reminds me of M.T. Anderson's FEED, in which language is boiled down into its most elemental state, except that in the case of OH NO! it's the concept of story that's been reduced for mass consumption, sort of like being fed through the television. It's non-interactive. You look at it, but you don't really need to think about it.

I can't see being able to read this aloud at a storytime event because there's a lot going on visually that would be hard for a group of children to see; and it doesn't seem to challenge the imagination enough to sit down one on one. It is something that, like television, could be given to a child to keep busy, but that sort of ruins the point of a picture book. Little kids are learning how to use a book, turn a page, read left to right. The layout of this book appears to ignore developmental needs. So, maybe it's a new breed of early reader, for first and second graders who want to watch a book.

I could have said nothing about Oh NO! because I admire Mac Barnett's work (and Dan Santat, well, he's brilliant), but I found myself dreaming about it last night and getting upset. It's not really this particular book that's gotten a rise out of me, it's the style of book--a $16.99 television program or movie produced by Disney. Even the gorgeous cover, when removed, lays out to reveal a movie poster.

Please, don't let this be a trend. And Mac Barnett, please get back to telling great stories.

Source: I bought my copy at Orca Books.

Review: Brixton Brothers

BRIXTON BROTHERS: THE CASE OF THE CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

by Mac Barnett

Simon & Shuster Children's Publishing (October 2009)

Ages 9-12

The title of this first installment of Mac Barnett's wisecracking, tongue-in-cheek gumshoe series says it all: THE CASE OF THE CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY is a swell send-up of kid detective novels that's ace all the way. Barnett takes stereotypical characters and situations and, like all good satire, pushes them to the extreme. It's a fun, cheeky approach to reinventing tired and simplistic genre tropes. 

Barnett's easy style and the short-clipped narrative of his kid detective, Steve Brixton, milk this genre for all it's worth and then some. It's brilliant, really, the way Barnett riffs on old HARDY BOYS mysteries by incorporating a fictional brother duo—the Bailey Brothers—as a guide for Steve to navigate the ins and outs of detecting. 

The mystery that Steve must solve is fantastically far-fetched: After being assigned an essay on quilting, he finds himself the target of some badass librarians who are out to recover a top secret quilt that they believe Steve has been hired to steal for the mysterious Mr. E. It's corny without being cheesy, in large part because Barnett does what every smart criminal does: he hides in plain sight. He's telling us what he's doing as he's doing it.

Whenever Steve runs up against a baddie, why he whips out The Bailey Brothers Detective Handbook for tips. When he finds himself in a tight spot, the Bailey Brothers bail him out with the following advice:

Jumping from high places isn't so bad—as long as you know how to fall! Shawn and Kevin Bailey are always leaping from old water towers or speeding trains. The key is rolling when you hit the ground!

As happens throughout the book, The Bailey Brothers Detective Handbook then goes on to give advice that falls apart in real life. It's a fun spoof! With lots of exclamations! And keen ideas! That don't work!

The only problem I have with the book is not with the book, but the next one. How can Mac Barnett sustain the freshness of THE CASE OF THE CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY? Will retro get old? Can Barnett top the top of his game? I guess I'll have to wait until this fall when the next Brixton Brothers mystery—THE GHOSTWRITER SECRET hits the shelves.

(Oh--and Adam Rex who illustrated the book, he's ace too!)

Source: I bought my paperback copy at Orca Books.