Toon Books: LITTLE MOUSE GETS READY

Toon Books Official Site

Jeff Smith + Toon Books = Inevitable

Here we have the first instructional book from Toon Books. The lesson: how to dress yourself if you're a mouse. Little Mouse is eager to visit the barn. His mother tells him to "get ready" and he can go play, thusly the rich plot unfolds. It's to Smith's credit that he makes buttoning a shirt an engaging action. This is hard work for a little mouse, but our hero is up to the task. He carefully recites aloud what he needs to do as he pulls on his pants and buttons that troublesome shirt (Sign O the times - this is the first children's book I've seen that shows kids how to fasten their sneakers, not tie them). As he dresses, his monologue is punctuated by excited speculation over what fun awaits in the barn. Fully clothed with a shirt, pants and sneakers he proudly tells his momma he's ready to go. But wait - Shyamalan plot twist! Momma delivers the punchline, "Mice don't wear clothes!" Little Mouse flies into the air, throwing off every shred of clothing at once and runs nekkid to the barn. This little bit of slapstick gets the biggest laugh out of my four year old.

The story is sweet and expertly drawn by Smith, which comes as no surprise. There is one sneaky plot hole I missed, but my little girl noticed it immediately. Her first question was, "But what did his momma mean when she told him to get ready?"

What indeed?

LITTLE MOUSE GETS READY releases September 7, but you can see a preview HERE.

Gateway Drug: IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN

I'm just going to come right out and say it:

IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN is better than WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. Oh sure, that's like saying Casino is better than GoodFellas, right? After all, both books share the same plot - a little boy has an adventurous dream filled with images tapped from his subconscious. But I'm here to tell you that NIGHT KITCHEN works the same material better. I guess WILD THINGS wins the popular vote because it's story and themes are clearer. For kids there's the thrill of being powerful and important, for adults there's the subtext of oncoming puberty. NIGHT KITCHEN isn't quite as straightforward - there's a lot of strange shit about bread dough and giant kitchen utensils going on. I'm not going to pretend I know all of what Sendak is trying to say, but I love the way he says it. And that's because he says it through the magic of comics, yay!





As with all good comics, the typography is a seamless part of the artwork. The story is told through narrative panels, the dialogue spoken in big loud word balloons. Aside from all that, this is Sendak's best illustrated book. He uses a thick black line to render each character to perfection. Not a drop of ink is wasted. The color scheme is warm and earthy with occasional spots of red that leap out and hug your brain. The panel progressions accelerate the action in a way traditional storybook formats cannot. It speeds the reader along with naked little Mikey as he falls, leaps and flies through his kitschy kitchen. And while it may not have the wonderful monsters of WILD THINGS, it has instead three wacky cannibal bakers who put Mickey into a cake. These guy's are probably Sendak's most bizarre creations, which is certainly saying something.






Funny story - I always thought the bakers were supposed to look like Oliver Hardy. I just figured that since Mikey's dream was full of things stored in his subconscious he must have watched Way Out West or something right before bedtime. But get this, it turns out they're actually a trio of HITLERS! In an NPR interview, Sendak says imagery such as the bakers' moustaches and Mickey in the oven came from his preoccupation with the holocaust. Sendak is some kind of dark, fascinating guy. I wish I could sit and talk with this cat but I'd probably be too intimidated and screw it up. Listen to THIS interview and you can hear him explain how he doesn't do book signings anymore because it's too traumatic for children to meet him.

Gateway Drug: ELEPHANT & PIGGIE

Here we have an excellent comic book disguised as an excellent children’s book.

Mo Willem’s ELEPHANT & PIGGIE books have won Geisel awards. They are vetted by early-learning specialists. They are immensely popular and just downright awesome. What nobody talks about is that Willems has crafted a perfect batch of comic book primers. Now I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but he does hail from the animation industry. So at the very least he’s been having some fun with an art form he’s surely familiar with.

In any given volume we find Gerald the elephant and his best friend Piggie (the pig) playing a game or trying to fly or simply having a conversation about what to wear to a party. The stories are told entirely through the dialogue between the two friends with the occasional cameo from a squirrel or some other mammalian passerby. Willems really knows how to use the language of comics to set a rhythm. Each page works as a panel and he doesn’t waste a single one whether it’s a silently thoughtful moment or a loud elephanty outburst. Piggie and Gerald interact on page like a couple of stage performers who have spent years honing their act to comedic perfection. The simple renderings manage to capture certain subtleties of emotion as well as laugh out loud facial expressions.

And there’s this one book where Piggie wears a big cardboard box and a colander on his head and she walks around like a robot. Now that’s the kind of stuff that wins Geisel Awards.

I learned firsthand what a fun and effective learning tool these are. After a few bedtime readings, my three year old daughter was reciting the dialogue and sound effects back to me every time. She quickly associated each picture with the accompanying word balloons. She even yelled at the top of her lungs when the word balloons were appropriately huge ( but I like to think she learned that from my own expert line readings).

You can see all of Mo Willems other popular books HERE.

Sure, everybody is all like “Oh, his pigeon on the bus book is the best thing ever!” but - and this is in no way meant to disparage the pigeon - Gerald and Piggie are truly where it’s at.

Gateway Drug: THE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK

What was your first comic book?

If you named any 28 page stapled floppy I'll bet you're wrong. I only recently realized my first comic was also a beloved children's book. I'm talking about the classic THE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK. Grover's literary opus is actually a meta head-trip of a comic book (and not just thanks to the vintage 70's art and typography). Here we have Grover breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the kids. Oh sure this has been done before in comics and it's standard operating procedure for Sesame Street. But Grover takes it to the next level. By simply turning the pages the kids themselves are breaking the wall (sometimes quite literally) and having a direct effect on the plot. Grover's interaction with the reader is the story.


Could this have been done so well in any other medium? No way, I sez! The comics style - the word balloons and immediacy of the panel progression (in this case the panels are all two page spreads) - provide maximum intimacy between reader and character. It's a form of comics that still infiltrates childrens' picture books today.

Ethan Long follows Grover's lead in his popular 2004 book TICKLE THE DUCK. In it the reader propels the story by tickling Duck's bumpy feet or hairy armpit causing him to break out in hysterical laughter after each page progression. DUCK utilizes all the same strengths as MONSTER plus it successfully adds the touch-and-feel gimmick.

Ironically the direct sequel to MONSTER misses the point of the original. ANOTHER MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK adds that rock star Elmo to the mix (apparently not satisfied with co-opting half of Sesame Street, he must also insinuate himself on his costars' past achievements) while replicating the look of the original. This time Grover is pleading with Elmo not to turn the page, leaving the reader to merely observe the action. This takes a lot of fun out of the original premise.

The duck also has his own follow-up book called STOP KISSING ME (or more accurately, STOP SEXUALLY HARASSING THE POODLE). Like the Elmo version, STOP KISSING ME brings another character into the story. The reader still gets to push a button and produce a cool slobbery kiss sound effect whenever Duck smooches the poodle, but this kind of involvement isn't as direct. In TICKLE the reader gets to "control" the action. With KISS it's more of a Rocky Horror brand of audience participation. According to Long's website there's a third Duck book on the way that apparently involves a working light switch. The advancements in touch-and-feel technology are accelerating at a remarkable rate!

At any rate, both Duck books are worth your while. Aside from laying the groundwork for brainwashing your children, they also happen to be a lot of fun. And dude, that duck's face cracks me up.

You don't need me to tell you that THE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK is worth your while. I'll just assume that if you're reading this you own it already. Right?

But don't bother with ANOTHER MONSTER because - You know what? - screw Elmo. Such an attention whore.