Stuck by Oliver Jeffers (Philomel Books, 2011) is one silly book. A boy gets his kite stuck in a tree and so he throws his shoe up to knock it loose … which also gets stuck. He tries to think of other things to throw into the tree to get the shoe out, and then of course to get the other items out of the tree. By the end, he has forgotten about the kite when it amazingly is knocked loose.
I won’t tell you the hilarious end or the extent of the ridiculousness of Floyd’s day but let me say that my easily distracted five-year-old related to him very well.
The front-matter indicates that
[The art] was created by compositing various scribbles and blotches of pain, made on small pieces of paper, all together inside of my computer.
It’s amazing what computer composite artwork can do, because the confused but crafty mix of paint, crayon, and pencil, mixed together in ordered lines and shapes and scribbles and blotches, created a look just right for silly Floyd.
Kid’s thoughts on finishing the book: “Read it again!”
Nominations for the Cybils are open! As a first-round panelist, I get to read all the nominated fiction picture books, those published between October 16, 2011 and October 15, 2012. My son (turning 5 tomorrow!) and I enjoy watching nominations come in, and we’re always excited when we see a book we’ve already enjoyed show up on the list! Some he’s really excited to read because the title is so interesting or the cover illustrations are intriguing. We read this book earlier in the year but didn’t have a chance to post about it then.
