Twenty Questions

December 15, 2022
Broad questions will spark discussion among readers. Barnett opens with a question common to children's books: "How many animals can you see in this picture?" The charming, bright green tree, surrounded by drawn, painted, and collaged animals, might be the only reason a child obediently gives a bored answer and turns the page. The next spread startles with its abrupt, sinister humor: As an orange beast with sharp fangs and claws prowls among large green leaves, the text asks, "How many animals can you not see in this one, because they're hiding from the tiger?" Each succeeding page is totally independent from the others, with a fresh new question or questions presented in large, bold, black print and vibrant artwork. Each spread creates its own world, inviting readers to discuss--either orally or in writing--their own answers. A humorous vein runs through the book, but other emotions are also evoked, including poignancy. One off note: The absurdity of pressing readers to decide which of two men has "a better singing voice" by seeing them--not hearing them--may be lost behind the racial overtones, as one man is decidedly pink-faced and the other brown-faced. The clever, attractive final spread--posterworthy--manages to be both open-ended and final. Humans depicted are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Quirky entertainment to jump-start creativity. (Picture book. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 9, 2023
Barnett and Robinson (Leo: A Ghost Story) reteam for this interactive picture book, which asks questions that spur contemplation and wonder. Alongside an initial question—“How many animals can you see in this picture?”—the first pages show a green tree dotted with various creatures, including a peacock, a panther, and a snake. A page later, a lone orange tiger creeps through dense undergrowth. “How many animals can you not see in this one,” sly text reads, “because they’re hiding from the tiger?” Across a string of expansive queries, the images’ quiet understatement provides a dry counterpoint to the questions’ whimsy. Attending one spread that shows six people with different skin tones and styles, and a police officer driving by them, Barnett asks, “Which of these ladies just robbed a bank?” Some pages invite speculation (about a cow perched on a wind turbine: “How did that cow get all the way up there?”), others tease (regarding a bathtub in which two eyes are just visible: “What kind of beast lives in this bathtub?”), and some encourage storytelling (relating to a figure and seagulls pictured alongside an outcropping, “Who is she waiting for?”). All of them set readers free to notice and invent. Ages 4–8.

January 1, 2023

K-Gr 2-Reminiscent of Chris Van Allsburg's Mysteries of Harris Burdick, but without the eeriness, Barnett captions a set of Robinson's flattened, brightly hued, paper-collage style cartoon scenes with open-ended questions for inventive storysmiths: "How many animals can you not see in this [picture] because they're hiding from the tiger?" "What is this boy" (who is standing between an ostrich and a tortoise in a wheelchair) "hiding behind his back?" "What kind of beast lives in this bathtub? And what does it eat?" The illustrator gets into the act by challenging viewers to concoct plotlines from random common items set in wordless arrays on the endpapers and, in a surreal transformation that just gets stranger the more it's looked at, turning one of a pair of lion paws in a scene into a full lion by adding a few inked lines and a tail. And perhaps with an eye to the Oh, the Places You'll Go! market, at the end a ship heads for the horizon. "Will you go with it? Are you ever coming back?" VERDICT An inspiring set of story prompts for younger audiences, with some longer thoughts for older ones slipped in.-John Edward Peters

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2023
This conversation-starting picture book presents a series of questions and invites children to supply the answers. The first spread asks viewers to count the number of animals pictured, with Robinson depicting a creature-filled tree and a bear and elephant at its base. The next spread, featuring a tiger partially concealed by jungle leaves, adds an element of delicious mischief: "How many animals can you not see in this one, because they're hiding from the tiger?" There's much more mischief: someone has just robbed a bank ("which of these ladies" did it?); bandits bury a treasure (and "what would you do if you found it?"); there's a mysterious beast in a bathtub (what kind?); and more. Some questions give simple options, one spread showing three sleeping children with Barnett's text asking which one dreams of peaches. Others are open-ended, making them a good match for creative writing prompts. For instance, a woman stands atop a cliff next to the question: "Who is she waiting for?" Robinson's textured mixed-media collages provide just enough detail and sometimes pose visual questions that the text doesn't even touch on. How, for instance, did the snake get in the tennis shoe pictured on the cover? Even the endpapers are a delight, Robinson turning everyday objects (a banana, a mug) into question marks. This is creative, interactive picture-book fun, without question. Julie Danielson

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from February 15, 2023
Preschool-Grade 2 *Starred Review* In an endlessly inventive, tongue-in-cheek fashion, the eternally celebrated Barnett joins forces with Caldecott nominee Robinson to craft a series of questions that work in creative tandem with the illustrations but, purposefully, have no answers. Stimulating conversation starters encourage children to use their imaginations as they consider their responses to posed questions. This is not a book made for quick page turns; there are many possible responses to every question, and each answer might lead to a lengthy discussion. Both questions and images range from the reasonable to the absurd: ""How did that cow get all the way up there?"" asks one page, which features a brown cow atop a windmill. ""Which of these fellows has a better singing voice?"" asks another, which features two men--one white, portly, and balding, the other Black, behatted, and skinny, each with their mouths wide open. Robinson's large, crisp, brightly hued illustrations are eccentric and engaging, and the details in each leave room for more questions. Placed on white backgrounds, the mixed-media pictures, which include sponged paint and collage, are quirky and fun. This unconventional picture book will be a hit in storytimes and for one-on-one sharing, as the responses will probably change whenever the book is read.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Barnett and Robinson are both superstars in their own right. Together, and with a book that's built for rereading, this won't stay on shelves for long.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2023
This conversation-starting picture book presents a series of questions and invites children to supply the answers. The first spread asks viewers to count the number of animals pictured, with Robinson depicting a creature-filled tree and a bear and elephant at its base. The next spread, featuring a tiger partially concealed by jungle leaves, adds an element of delicious mischief: "How many animals can you not see in this one, because they're hiding from the tiger?" There's much more mischief: someone has just robbed a bank ("which of these ladies" did it?); bandits bury a treasure (and "what would you do if you found it?"); there's a mysterious beast in a bathtub (what kind?); and more. Some questions give simple options, one spread showing three sleeping children with Barnett's text asking which one dreams of peaches. Others are open-ended, making them a good match for creative writing prompts. For instance, a woman stands atop a cliff next to the question: "Who is she waiting for?" Robinson's textured mixed-media collages provide just enough detail and sometimes pose visual questions that the text doesn't even touch on. How, for instance, did the snake get in the tennis shoe pictured on the cover? Even the endpapers are a delight, Robinson turning everyday objects (a banana, a mug) into question marks. This is creative, interactive picture-book fun, without question.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)