Use Extreme Caution

After fourteen years living in northern Michigan you would think I would be used to the wind; more days are windy than not.  As a weather nerd (I frequently check NOAA National Weather Service to follow local, state and national weather) I've noticed this year in addition to Small Craft Advisories or Gale Warnings, a new type of alert, Beach Hazards Statement.  This advises people to watch for high wave action, longshore currents and rip currents.  People know wind combined with these headlines are serious.

There are other times when an alert, advisory or warning is an invitation to do the exact opposite of the request.  Perhaps you or someone else are doing something particularly annoying; one or the other will utter these oft-heard words, "I'm warning you, ..."  To the frustration of one, the other continues with glee.  The very finest demands to ignore though are found within the pages of a book.  Every single page turn in Warning: Do Not Open This Book! (A Paula Wiseman Book, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) narrated by Adam Lehrhaupt with illustrations by Matthew Forsythe is a tantalizing temptation.

Maybe you should put this book back.
You don't want to let the monkeys out.

Immediately you are wondering how and why monkeys got trapped inside a book.  You are compelled beyond your control to turn the next page.  This completed compulsion is greeted with a question.

The narrator is inquiring as to why you are here and not back where it is safer.  If you stay on this page, you are still in a risk-free area.  It would be a very good thing to remain right where you are.

Desire to discover the truth has deepened.  What's the worst that could happen?  It's a book after all.  Right?

Uh...Oh...

Here they come.

First one, then eight more monkeys of all shapes and sizes scamper across the pages carrying art supplies and a musical instrument.  What are these roaming rascals going to do?  It's a jungle, a rather sloppy jungle, but they've painted a jungle!  Whew, okay...this is a situation which can be handled without fear. Why are we readers being cautioned to stop turning pages?

Yikes!  I guess if you have tropical trees an invasion of toucans is a given.  Above the chaotic noise another sound is heard.  It's not a good sound....not a good sound at all.  Readers are now wishing they would have listened.  They should have heeded the advice of the faithful narrator.  Will a fruitful trap be able to save the day?


Readers could not ask for a better narrator, author, than Adam Lehrhaupt to tell this tale of playful pandemonium.  Each sentence is structured, despite words to the contrary, to entice readers to proceed.  As readers fall farther under the spell he has verbally cast, they realize there is no turning back.  Even if they could they don't want to; they're having too much fun with Lehrhaupt as the perfect partner on this adventure.


Digitally rendered illustrations by artist Matthew Forsythe enhance and extend this story from the matching front jacket and cover onward.  From the tape, chains and glaring messages on the front to the opening endpapers, the results of not taking the title seriously are clearly delineated.  A pattern of various style signs with wit and wisdom warn and question; my favorite is HERE IS THE LAST GUY WHO READ THIS BOOK with an arrow pointing to a skull.  (At this point I can barely contain laughter.)

Grays, browns, golds and greens in earth tone hues color pictures varying in size and position.  Some are front and center, others cover a single page or extend across the gutter.  Backgrounds shift from white, lots of white, to a pale golden, and to a deep gray green. Once the first monkey head peeks from the lower right-hand corner of a double-page spread  the jungle jive begins; those primates move, groove and rest with a passion.  I think one of my favorite text and illustrative combinations is

Can you stop now?
Everything used to
be so good.
Wait! Did you hear...

The two-page spread of the monkey faces close up with the accompanying toucans, wide-eyed and questioning, is loaded with premonition (and hilarity).  The closing endpapers and back jacket with corresponding cover are all part of the story, too.


Four words come to mind when thinking of Warning: Do Not Open This Book! narrated by Adam Lehrhaupt with illustrations by Matthew Forsythe, impeccable pacing and relentless humor.  Reading it aloud makes it even better.  This book is meant to be shared.  Believe me...your listeners will ask for this title over and over.  I'm tempted to pair this with James Stevenson's Don't Make Me Laugh.

Please follow the links above to the author and illustrator websites for more information about each.  Here is the link to a recent interview of Adam Lehrhaupt at Watch. Connect. Read. by John Schumacher.  Please visit the blog post of the debut of the book trailer.  Have fun and open this book at will... as long as you have a banana.

Have No Fear, Alligator Is Here

Year after year I've stood outside the school watching the buses arrive on the first day of school, outside the library doors in the hallway or inside the library on open house night as parents and their sons and daughters arrive excited, anxious and for new students, wondering and wide-eyed.  No matter what they have read or been told, the experience is a change.  It's the not knowing, the never-been-here-before and never-done-this-before feeling, which can be overwhelming.

Each person, no matter their age, has a method in place for dealing with stress.  Quite frankly, children have the best idea of all---carrying their favorite toy with them, a friend that never fails.  The first day of school ever, starting kindergarten, is shown to be less intimidating in Oliver and his Alligator (Disney Hyperion Books) written and illustrated by Paul Schmid.  Oliver's alligator is different, very special and...agreeably hungry.

Oliver sometimes felt his brave 
wasn't nearly as big
as he needed it to be.

He decides to pick up an alligator at the swamp on his way to school for the first day.  As soon as Oliver arrives at his classroom door, the fear grows.  His mom isn't there for starters.  She has been replaced by a unknown woman who wants to know his name.  A name which escapes him at the moment.

All he can think to say is "Munch, munch!"  These two words turn out to be a code communication between he and his reptile pal.  The stranger disappears into the stomach of the alligator.  Walking into the classroom is clear now but there are new children in the room.

One, a little girl, has the misfortune to approach Oliver asking him about his favorite animal.  Overcome by shyness the only two words he can utter are..."Munch, munch!"  The belly of the gator is getting noticeably bigger.  Maybe school isn't going to be so bad after all when you've got a buddy like Oliver has.

There were more boys and girls.  Alligator is getting huge.  There are inviting educational patterns and designs on the walls.  Alligator is now ginormous.  Ah, yes...that's more to Oliver's liking, peaceful and quiet and...wait...could it be...boring?

There's a sound.  Oliver wants to be a part of the sound.  There's only one thing for Oliver to do and he does it.


The simplicity of the text, the ease in which it flows, all contribute to the appeal of this title.  Paul Schmid writes specifically for his intended audience, knowing the heart of a child on the first, very first, day of school.  In using two, single syllable words repeatedly to alleviate any problem Oliver encounters, readers can feel, like Oliver, the same sense of relief and finally a sense of belonging.

Using pastel pencil and digital color Paul Schmid creates pages where readers can be comfortable stepping into Oliver's world.  On the book's jacket the cool, soft minty green, the textured dusty blue of Oliver's sweater, the rosy red of the apple in his hands appear again on the jacket's spine.  On the front we see only the tail and the back portion of the alligator's body.  His nose and the rest of his body are on the back of the jacket looking at Oliver. When you remove the jacket the cover unfolded is all white except for three stripes of green (including the spine).  An upright alligator is on the front.

The opening and closing endpapers, in lavender with a partial circle of lighter turquoise in the lower right and left corners, respectively, are actually part of the story, as is the dedication page (For Maurice) with Oliver forlornly staring into his cereal bowl, an apple sitting on the table.  The lines used to create Oliver are soft, delicate, sketch-like; making him all the more endearing.  The same holds true for his alligator.  Readers will want to hug them both.

Throughout the book Schmid alters his layout and perspective making liberal use of white space, along with a gray, the turquoise, the alligator green, the lavender, the rosy red, introducing a lime green and spots of pale yellow.  Every time Oliver speaks the "Munch, munch!" words with the girth of his alligator expanding, Schmid's portrayal of the loyal companion gets funnier and funnier.  The paper stock coupled with the medium and artistic techniques make the reading of this book a very tactile experience.  My two favorite illustrations are of Oliver resting on his alligator's stomach after the teacher and little girl have been consumed and the alligator alone spread across the gutter after Oliver wonders if all the students can fit inside his friend, They could.


Oliver and his Alligator written and illustrated by Paul Schmid is one of those books you wish you could give a copy to every new student entering your building.  It speaks directly to those fears, apprehensions, children have.  Paul Schmid is attentive to children's feelings and he knows how to make everything okay.

It would be interesting to read this title to any age, asking them to write or draw what they would bring to school on the first day (or another time they might be frightened) to give them comfort.  I think it might be a good idea to have the first day of school be Bring Your Stuffed Animal Day.  There are days I wish I still had my sock monkey.

Please follow the link embedded in Paul Schmid's name above to access his website.  Follow this link to an interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  There's lots of artwork.