This Is Not a Picture Book!

Starred review from February 22, 2016
This isn’t a book about books; it’s a book about learning to read. A duckling with a pink beak picks up a fat volume and discovers, in the irritated comment of the title, that it has no pictures. “Can you read it?” asks his sidekick, a bug. “I’m not sure,” says the duckling. “Words are so difficult.” In luminous watercolors, Ruzzier (Two Mice) shows the duckling and bug crossing into a strange, many-colored world, where unfamiliar words are represented as odd machines, blobby shapes, and bizarre creatures. When the duckling stumbles on a word he knows (“bee,” “flower”), its recognizable image pops up among the mysterious ones. Duckling and bug wander through the ever-changing landscape of reading—“There are wild words... and peaceful words”—before landing cozily in bed. Ruzzier’s story offers gentle empathy for kids tackling this intimidating task. Observant readers will note that the endpapers represent learning to read, too; the initial pair retells the story as a beginner might see it, with most of the words scrambled, while the words of the final endpapers read clearly—and no pictures there, either. Ages 3–5. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

Starred review from March 15, 2016
A metafictive delight of a picture book. Alice would be pleased: despite Ruzzier's title, there are plenty of pictures and ample conversation in this picture book. The titular book within the book, however, is illustration-free. This initially causes distress for the duckling protagonist (who oddly has a bellybutton, but that's beside the point) who finds the book in the spreads before the title page. When a bug appears and asks, "Can you read it?" the duckling gives it a try. In a brilliant feat of page layout, the recto depicts a green landscape encroaching on the verso, with a log laid across a chasm as a bridge to the white space on which the duckling and bug stand. Their walk across the log is a visual metaphor for the duckling's successful decoding of the text in its pictureless book. Whole worlds open up to them as the duckling reads aloud. Illustrations depict these worlds evoked by "wild words... / and peaceful words," and the duckling ultimately declares that "All these words carry you away." The satisfying conclusion is an affirmation of the transformative power of reading. In one outstanding design touch, the front endpapers tell the not-a-picture-book text in garbled type with transposed letters that one must strain to decode, while the text is clear in its entirety on the back ones. This is a (great) picture book! (Picture book. 4-8)

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Starred review from May 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 2-In this winsome examination of the power of words, a little duckling is delighted to find a red book lying on the ground. "Where are the pictures?!" the fuzzy yellow bird exclaims in dismay upon opening it up. The duck flips through the pages, scanning the plethora of print, and begins to recognize some of the words. His interest and enthusiasm flourish as he continues, reading words that are funny and sad, wild and peaceful. His imagination takes off, and along with his tiny cricket friend, the duckling is swept away on a fantastic adventure. He tells the little insect, "All these words carry you away...and then...they bring you home." The straightforward tale is enhanced by endpapers featuring lines of text, which are jumbled in the front and placed in order to relate the duck's story in the back. The eclectic pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations add color and energy to the narrative. At first, the pictures are set against a canvas of white space and then slowly expand as the duck begins to envision scenes with each additional word he reads. One of the final spreads portrays the duck and his friend safe at home in his bedroom, which contains a shelf crammed with books.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
A duckling happens upon a book: "Where are the pictures?!" A bug asks: "Can you read it?" As it happens, the book is so engrossing that the duck can't take its eyes off the page; only the bug (and readers) notice Ruzzier's pen, ink, and watercolor landscapes reflecting the duck's book-sparked revelations. A beguiling pitch for reading--magic that turns words into pictures.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 1, 2016
When a duckling happens upon a book, there's giddiness -- "A book!" -- until the hard truth sets in: "Where are the pictures?!" An inquisitive bug comes on the scene: "Can you read it?" The duck's reply -- "I'm not sure" -- sits on the left-hand side of a double-page spread showing a deep chasm dividing the duck's stark white world from a land of color on the right. The adult reader sees what Ruzzier is up to -- the life of the mind is at stake! -- but to the young reader there's an element of physical danger. As it happens, the found book is so engrossing that the duck can't take its eyes off the page and proceeds unthinkingly across a horizontal log connecting the two worlds. Once across, only the bug (and the reader) notices Ruzzier's pen, ink, and watercolor landscapes, some featuring fantastical plants, creatures, and geometric objects. The various tableaux reflect the duck's book-sparked revelations. "Some [words] are funny!" coincides with a whimsical expanse that might have been a deleted scene from Yellow Submarine, and "Some are very sad" shows a desolate war-ravaged landscape. By now the beguiled child reader may or may not be aware that This Is Not a Picture Book! is a pitch for reading -- a magic act that turns words into pictures. (Readers for whom eighty-odd words of duck-on-bug monologue amount to insufficient storytelling can consult the endpapers, which tell the tale in third-person black-and-white English -- at least the second set of endpapers does. The first set is written mostly in pre-reader-esque gobbledygook.) nell beram

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

December 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 2-A duckling taking a walk stumbles upon a book only to discover it contains no pictures (the outrage!). However, the duckling decides to give the pictureless book a chance, and embarks on a journey through a landscape of familiar and unfamiliar words. The pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations expand in color and imagination as the value of reading becomes clear. Humorously tender and always sympathetic, this title captures the magic of a child's first venture into independent reading.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.