David Michael Slater's sixteen picture books include Cheese Louise (Walrus Books, 1999), The Ring Bear (Flashlight, 2004), Jacques & Spock (Clarion, 2004), and Flour Girl (Magic Wagon, 2007). The Bored Book (Simply Read Books, 2009) was reviewed positively in the New York Times. David's collection of short fiction for adults, The Book of Letters (Evermore Books, 2010), includes "The Last Lottery," which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His ongoing YA series, Sacred Books (Blooming Tree Books, 2008-present), is being developed for film by producer Kevin Bannerman (Lion King/Curious George) and screenwriter Karen Janzsen (Dolphin Tale). David lives in Portland, Oregon.
*A nearly wordless picture book presents the "I can read"
moment.
A small boy with a determined, mischievous expression enters a
library in the company of his mother. The look on the boy's face,
perfectly rendered by Kolar (as are all the expressions), alarms
the library books, and they run for their lives. The boy captures a
blue-bound book and begins manhandling it as he would any toy, in
the process ripping and creasing the pages. The other books look
on, horrified. The boy's mother (who, unsettlingly, seems to care
not a whit that the boy has mistreated a book) comes to get him. He
tosses the book to the floor as he leaves. The other books lovingly
glue and tape the battered book back together. A new day,
and—horrors!—the boy returns. Again, the books scatter. But then
the blue-bound book sees the boy's forlorn expression and suddenly
understands. The book leaps from its safe perch to the boy, the boy
opens the book, and it is here that the four words of text make
their powerful statement—"Once upon a time." For the boy has
learned to read, and now books are cherished and library manners
learned.
Presented as a grand adventure, the moment when a child first
learns to read is powerfully rendered in this well-made story.
-Kirkus Reviews, *starred review
Slater's (The Bored Book) wordless story seems headed toward a
lesson about mistreating library books, but the lesson turns out to
be one of surprising compassion. The book abuser is a young library
visitor with a mop of black hair who grabs a blue book while the
others flee (all of the books have expressive faces and sticklike
appendages). A question mark above the boy's head as he opens the
book signals his non-reader status. Instead, he holds it upside
down, rips it, tosses it, and folds the pages, accompanied by
anguished looks from the book itself. On a return visit, the book's
efforts to avoid the boy are futile, and he strikes again. But then
something wonderful happens: the boy learns to read, and he and the
book are reconciled. Kolar's (Stomp, Stomp!) digitally made figures
are crisp and flat, and the expressions on the books' faces do
their comic work effectively. Library champions don't usually
tolerate the ill-treatment of books, but sometimes, Slater implies,
what looks like bad behavior is just boundless eagerness.
-Publishers Weekly
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