Meaniehead by Bruce Eric Kaplan (review)

When siblings Eve and Henry reach for the same action figure, their bickering takes an epic turn. Before long, they have burned down the house, flattened the town, decimated the country, and destroyed the planet in their heedless, needless fighting, and only as they float in space, far from one another, do they decide that they don’t want to argue anymore. Author and illustrator Kaplan brings his signature New Yorker cartoon style to this absurdist story, depicting Henry and Eve as iris-less, stumpy figures whose line mouths and eyebrows convey their emotions in ink and watercolor art against gleaming white backgrounds. Though the dryness of the humor and spareness of the art may send this over some kids’ heads, others will appreciate the hyperbolic humor, and those familiar with sibling squabbles may just nod their heads in complete agreement.