Open Very Carefully: A Book with Bite!; by Nick Bromley (review)

What starts out as a retelling of “The Ugly Duckling” goes quickly awry when the narrator spots a sinister spiky tail on the text page (“There’s something in this book that shouldn’t be here!”). After another hinting spread, a page turn reveals a crocodile (“A really big scary one!”), who’s chowing down on text letters and ruining the story. The Ugly Duckling, who is all that’s left of the original story, draws the audience into the action, exhorting viewers to rock the book to lull the croc to sleep, to draw on him in fuchsia crayon to make him less scary, and to shake him out of the book when he finally wakes up. This is so engagingly interactive that it would make a fabulous app, and even in book form it will appeal to kids who relish the game-playing aspect (and, alas for library copies, the crayoning-on-pages aspect). The playful tone and accessibility make this particularly appropriate for kids who have a ways before they’re ready for Wiesner’s The Three Pigs (BCCB 5/01) or Scieszka’s The Stinky Cheese Man (BCCB 10/92). The visuals are key to the enjoyment here, with the watercolor figures of the Ugly Duckling (in a red bobble hat) and the lurid and oversized crocodile (with digitally enhanced teeth) floating against the pale pages as the text careens and arrows point across the spreads. Watts’ Chester (BCCB 11/07) or Schwarz’s There Are Cats in This Book (BCCB 12/08) are still the titles to beat in this area, but kids who’d rather play with a book than read it will embrace the opportunity.