Whimsical New Picture Books with a Spotlight on Wordplay – New York Times

WORDPLAY Written and illustrated by Ivan Brunetti 40 pp. Toon Books. $12.95. (Picture book; ages 3 to 7)

Childrens picture books are called picture books for a reason. The words are vital, of course, and they usually play an equal role, but the pictures pretty much always do the heavy lifting. In books where the words are understated or spare, the pictures are often overstated and elaborate. And then there are the wordless picture books, where the pictures dont even share the spotlight.

In these five new picture books, the pictures are back at center stage, but the spotlight is on the words or play of words. This subtle relationship shift has consequences. As the wordplay gets more complex, the pictures must exert more effort and ingenuity to make sense out of it. The result is uniquely offbeat, and wildly whimsical.

Most kids are familiar with the cryptic question: Why is 6 afraid of 7? The answer is Tara Lazars latest title: 7 Ate 9. Lazar has transformed this classic riddle into an improbable whodunit, featuring an all-star cast of large, brightly colored, walking, talking numbers. The pun-laden story, told in the voice of a hard-boiled private eye (played, naturally, by the letter I), involves the attention-seeking number 6 (a.k.a. The Client), who tries to pin a dreadful crime (cannibalism!) on the elusive number 9. Along the way there are supporting roles from Zero (shrewdly posing as an 8), and 11 (never far from 7) and B, a waitress who serves pi. Yes, pi. If this seems a little complicated, well, it is, but in a stylish, film noir kind of way. Lazars crisp, well-paced prose, combined with Ross MacDonalds dynamic illustrations, make the story a lot of fun to read, even if you have to backtrack to get your numbers straight. Think of it as a kid-friendly version of The Maltese Falcon, only with larger than life-size numbers, and no cigarette smoke.

In Susan Hoods Double Take! a boy, his cat and an elephant wander around the city, acting out the definitions of opposite words. It begins simply enough, with Jay Flecks expert compositions showing the difference between left and right, asleep and awake. But soon the concept shifts, from basic opposites to explaining what makes an opposite an opposite. Scale, perspective and point of view all come into play. Hoods rhyming prose gradually builds to a scene of a wild roller coaster ride, where she asks the reader to do a quick double take. Flecks picture shows the cat tied to a helium balloon, but the cat is above and the balloon is below a clue that proves that the right-side-up book is now upside down. Its a satisfying highlight to a stimulating book.

Rebecca Van Slyke has created a brave young cowgirl/etymologist in Lexie the Word Wrangler. Lexie lives west of the Mississippi, where, along with corralling cantankerous cattle, she can lasso words from thin air. Its a place where trees sprout baby letters, which grow into multisyllabic words, which are tossed into stew pots and herded into sentences, which eventually become stories. In other words: an ideal location for a writers retreat. However, all is not hunky-dory in this wordplay utopia. A word rustler is on the loose. He has removed the letter D from Lexies bandana, turning it literally into a banana. Worse yet, an extra S has transformed the desert into a giant dessert. Lexie must track down this scoundrel and bring him to justice. Jessie Hartlands artwork is playful and bright, and she does a valiant job integrating the wacky wordplay with the plot. This isnt an edge-of-your-seat western, but the book is packed with puns, twists of words and vintage cowboy dialect kids will enjoy imitating.

A similar rascal is at work in Bill Richardsons The Alphabet Thief. This long-nosed, masked bandit is on a nefarious mission, starting with the letter A. Following the logic of Lexie, when a letter, like B, is stolen, bowls become owls, brats are turned into rats, and a dog named Bill becomes ill. The story is told in brisk, rhyming stanzas, by a determined, redheaded sleuth. The wordplay is fun a chair becomes hair, a fox turns into an ox though some examples are a visual stretch. Throughout, Roxanna Bikadoroffs lively spot illustrations deftly keep pace as the altered words pile up. In the end, the redhead prevails, with a unique weapon; a Y-shaped slingshot that fires Zs. Dont worry, there is no bloodshed. Just swift and punitive sleep.

In Ivan Brunettis Wordplay, a schoolteacher assigns her class a homework assignment: to create a list of compound words. Somebody suggests homesick, and a picture shows a sad-faced house with a thermometer in its mouth. Housefly is seen as a house with wings. One student, fittingly named Annemarie, becomes obsessed. She looks for compound words everywhere around her, even where they dont exist. Brunettis use of simple, sequential cartoons turns this basic exercise into a brief, but delightful story.

Each of these books, though different in style and sensibility, is designed to spark a curiosity in language. They prove that whether its chasing after a riddle, stealing alphabet letters or defining an opposite, the picture book is an ideal stage for the play of words.

Jon Agee is the author and illustrator of many picture books, including Milos Hat Trick and Terrific, which will both be reissued in September.

A version of this review appears in print on July 16, 2017, on Page BR16 of the Sunday Book Review with the headline: Watch Your Language!.

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Whimsical New Picture Books with a Spotlight on Wordplay - New York Times