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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: THE TEENY-WEENY UNICORN
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.shawnharris.info
CITY: Half Moon Bay
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and illustrator. Has also worked as a musician.
AWARDS:John Newbery Medal, for The Eyes and the Impossible; Caldecott Honor, for Have You Ever Seen a Flower?; Bull-Bransom Award, National Museum of Wildlife Art, for excellence in the field of children’s book illustration with a focus on nature and wildlife, for A Polar Bear in the Snow.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Shawn Harris is an award-winning children’s book writer and illustrator. Harris started by creating promotional posters and album cover designs for his own band in 2003 and started to do more illustrations after that. In an interview in Spine, Harris talked about his set-up at home where he creates his works. “I work in the Mojave Desert, in a hole underground, where I keep cool and hide, like the rest of the animals out here. My art studio doubles as my music recording studio, so when I’m making art, I have an audience of tape machines and speakers.”
Her Right Foot details the origins and construction of New York City’s Statue of Liberty. The book also notes that Lady Liberty’s right heel is lifted, indicating that she is symbolically moving forward. In a review in Horn Book, Roger Sutton noted that “individual illustrations are frequently arresting.”
What Can a Citizen Do? introduces young readers to the notion of citizenship. The book offers young readers a list of things they can do as citizens to better their country, from joining a cause to helping a neighbor. Booklist contributor Jessica Anne Bratt suggested that “readers will be delighted by Harris’ inclusive collages, which vibrantly depict a world of different types of citizens.”
In Everyone’s Awake, the young narrator talks about everything that is happening in the house in the hours after regular bedtime. These include what the older brother is teaching the cat to dad baking and grandma doing her needlework. A Kirkus Reviews contributor took note of the “predictable, yet satisfying, end.”
With A Polar Bear in the Snow, a polar bear jumps in the frigid waters and swims around for a bit before heading home. The book’s text ponders what he could be heading out to do before the simplicity of the action speaks for itself. A contributor to Publishers Weekly observed that “Harris concentrates on the elemental beauty of Arctic life with minimalist forms and simple textures.”
In Have You Ever Seen a Flower?, a young city dweller travels through the countryside in amazement of the colors of the flower fields. The child feels a connection to nature and fully appreciates its beauty. A Kirkus Reviews contributor insisted that “like the protagonist and the natural environment, readers will feel themselves stretch and bloom.”
Doing Business, shows young readers the how-to’s of using the toilet. It also shuns doing one’s business in inappropriate places, while inviting readers to guess who made different messes. A contributor to Publishers Weekly claimed that “it’s poop positivity at its best.”
With The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza, alien rats are eating the moon. Scientist develop a cybernetically enhanced cat to save the moon. This cat becomes the first cat in space. A contributor to Publishers Weekly noticed that “an effective fluid panel structure and frequent perspective changes propel this fast-paced escapade from gag to gag.”
In The Eyes and the Impossible, Johannes the dog is tasked by the Keepers of the Equilibrium to watch over the park where the animals live. His assistants include a seagull named Bertrand, a squirrel named Sonja, a pelican named Yolanda, and a raccoon named Angus. Johannes manages to free a group of bison from their enclosure, liberating them. A contributor to Publishers Weekly concluded: “Aligning with themes of art and perspective, Harris contributes illustrations of Johannes as added to full-page reproductions of classical landscapes.”
With The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom, the Moon Queen has survived a series of assassination attempts. She and First Cat visit a wizard who tells them how to save the queen from the poisoned soup she ate, a task they must complete within twenty-four hours. Writing in School Library Journal, Alea Perez stated: “Though not as strong a showing as the first book in terms of laugh-out-loud moments, this sequel still has much to enjoy.”
In The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn, a tiny pink unicorn lives in a large palace with his regular-sized siblings. A garden gnome is upset that a large hoof crushed his new roadster. The tiny unicorn travels with the gnome to sort everything out. Booklist contributor Becca Worthington called it “a delightful, buoying romp.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2017, Michael Cart, review of Her Right Foot, p. 92; August 1, 2018, Jessica Anne Bratt, review of What Can a Citizen Do?, p. 64; January 1, 2020, Ronny Khuri, review of Everyone’s Awake, p. 100; September 1, 2020, Kay Weisman, review of A Polar Bear in the Snow, p. 116; May 1, 2021, Ronny Khuri, review of Have You Ever Seen a Flower?, p. 50; February 15, 2023, Emily Graham, review of The Eyes and the Impossible; January 1, 2024, Becca Worthington, review of The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn, p. 78.
Horn Book, November 1, 2017, Roger Sutton, review of Her Right Foot, p. 120.
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2017, review of Her Right Foot; August 1, 2018, review of What Can a Citizen Do?; December 15, 2019, review of Everyone’s Awake; April 1, 2021, review of Have You Ever Seen a Flower?; July 1, 2021, review of Doing Business; March 1, 2022, review of The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza; August 15, 2023, review of The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom; December 1, 2023, review of The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn.
Publishers Weekly, June 25, 2018, review of What Can a Citizen Do?; September 7, 2020, review of A Polar Bear in the Snow, p. 58; December 2, 2020, review of A Polar Bear in the Snow, p. 24; March 8, 2021, review of Have You Ever Seen a Flower?, p. 51; May 24, 2021, review of Doing Business, p. 81; April 11, 2022, Steven Malk, review of The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza, p. 74; November 23, 2022, review of The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza, p. 118; March 13, 2023, review of The Eyes and the Impossible, p. 54; November 6, 2023, review of The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn, p. 48.
School Library Journal, August 1, 2023, Alea Perez, review of The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom.
ONLINE
Let’s Talk Picture Books, https://www.letstalkpicturebooks.com/ (October 31, 2017), “Let’s Talk Illustrators #47: Shawn Harris.”
Shawn Harris website, https://www.shawnharris.info (September 15, 2024).
Spine, https://spinemagazine.co/ (September 15, 2024), author interview.
What to Read to Your Kids, https://whattoreadtoyourkids.com/ (May 6, 2021), author interview.
Shawn Harris is an award-winning author and illustrator of books for kids. The Eyes and the Impossible, a #1 New York Times bestseller written by Dave Eggers, was awarded the John Newbery Medal, while his authorial debut Have You Ever Seen A Flower, called a “stunning tour de force…” by The New York Times, received a Caldecott Honor. The National Museum of Wildlife Art gave Shawn the Bull-Bransom Award, for excellence in the field of children’s book illustration with a focus on nature and wildlife, for his cut-paper illustrations in A Polar Bear in the Snow, by Mac Barnett, with whom he also creates the bestselling First Cat In Space graphic novel series. Shawn lives in Half Moon Bay, California, and likes to writes songs, surf, and play racquetball.
Shawn is represented by Steven Malk at Writers House.
October 31, 2017
Let's Talk Illustrators #47: Shawn Harris
Recently I got the chance to chat with debut picture book illustrator Shawn Harris about Her Right Foot, written by Dave Eggers. There's so much that's incredible about this book –– the subject matter, the message, the delivery –– but before I even knew the story, it was the illustration style and design of the book that captured my heart. Shawn might just be starting his career in children's book illustration, but it's clear that this is where he was meant to be all along, and it is my sincere pleasure to share our conversation with you.
About the book:
If you had to name a statue, any statue, odds are good you'd mention the Statue of Liberty. Have you seen her?
She's in New York.
She's holding a torch.
And she's in mid-stride, moving forward.
But why?
In this fascinating and fun take on nonfiction, Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris investigate a seemingly small trait of America's most emblematic statue. What they find is about more than history, more than art. What they find in the Statue of Liberty's right foot is the powerful message of acceptance that is essential of an entire country's creation!
Peek underneath the dust jacket here.
Watch the official book trailer here.
Listen to Matthew Winner's podcast interview with Shawn Harris here.
Let's talk Shawn Harris!
LTPB: What kind of visual research did you do to create the illustrations for this book? How did your illustrations evolve as you continued to research and build out Dave’s text?
This book is a work of nonfiction about the Statue of Liberty that also veers into passages of whimsy and ultimately into a reflection on the concept of inclusivity that the statue represents, and so it demanded that I walk a fine line between factual accuracy and creative abstraction. My rule was that the statue would always appear in her designed form— that iconic pose that the book fixates upon, so when she moves around New York in search of a panini or a Nico record, she is not so much anthropomorphized, as she is being conceptually slid around the boroughs by the suggestions in the text like an enormous chess piece.
And this is where a lot of my research was focussed. This piece showing a silhouetted statue climbing the Manhattan skyline is pretty close to being accurate, with the right lens, from the right angle.
Though originally, I didn’t have the idea to have her interacting with the skyline in a play on perspective at all.
And when I did get the idea, here was the more true-to-life depiction of the skyline behind her, which I cheated a bit into something of a staircase before her for the final piece.
And if you are landing in Laguardia or JFK and have the fortune of a window seat, the statue still holds her torch in welcome toward you. Thanks to google earth for this one, and a photographic confirmation from a musician friend of mine landing in NY on tour. (Tom, from the Plain White T’s, whose popular lyric befittingly asks, “Hey there Delilah, what’s it like in New York City?”)
Of course the statue is a well documented landmark, and so I had a bounty of fantastic photographs to reference at my local libraries, too. The most interesting thing about the early photographs of her construction is that they are all of course black and white. I never stopped to consider that being made of copper, in these photographs, standing high above Paris, and then New York City, she was actually shiny and brown, like a new penny!
The first piece I did was based on this photo, and was one of three samples that I first made for Dave, before he and my editor Taylor Norman at Chronicle decided they would like me to illustrate the book:
And here it is before I added ink lines:
The other two samples didn’t fit into the book, but here they are:
The line work on these last two was digital, over scans of cut paper. For the book, I decided to photograph the paper instead of scanning it because, as you can see on these samples, the shadow and dimension of the work is not as apparent, and I really wanted the images to appear that they might have been collaged into your very copy of the book.
LTPB: You created the illustrations in this book from construction paper and India ink. Have you always worked in this media? How did you distinguish your "picture book" style from your "record design" style? What did illustrating a picture book for the first time teach you?
A lot of my previous illustrations and designs for bands were done in collage, like these:
Though I had never simplified my materials to the degree that such a definitive style emerged, as I did in Her Right Foot.
Part of what really excited me about doing my first picture book was the opportunity to find a style that could start me in a direction toward a real identity as an illustrator. My next book is going to be a 3-spot-color print, and though it isn’t made with cut paper, it does put a strong emphasis on minimal line over bold shapes, which I learned largely from working with the simple cut construction paper. Here’s a little sample test from that new project:
LTPB: How involved were you in the design of this book, specifically the case cover, dust jacket, and endpapers?
Very! My designer Kristine at Chronicle was kind enough to give me a design credit, which was very nice of her, but we did work together quite a bit, and I ended up executing all of the layout and titles in cut paper, and hand lettering, which just fit the cut and paste aesthetic of the book better that manipulating those elements digitally.
The case, which is my cut paper version of the statue’s tablet, is the only really 3-dimensional piece that I made for the book. To get the look of the tablet right, I made some origami-like folds to get the shadows from my lights to add those bevelled edges.
And with case in hand, you can dress up as Lady Liberty herself, like my friend Alice here from the blog Victoria Ann Meyers:
LTPB: What are you working on now? Anything you can show us?
I’m doing another book with Dave Eggers and Chronicle, called What Can a Citizen Do? (that spot color book with the boy in the bear costume I showed you from the test above) and then another book, in cut paper, with Mac Barnett. Here’s one of my samples for that book, which has me illustrating an Arctic landscape with light more than with line…
LTPB: Last question! If you could have one illustrator (other than yourself!) illustrate your picture book biography, who would it be and why?
Well, while so many of my favorite illustrators are mid-century folks like Duvoisin, Sendak, Sasek, Simont, Emberley... I’m going to choose a contemporary: Bendik Kaltenborn. He is not a known name in picture books, but his work in comics, editorial, and music-related illustration is just my very favorite right now. His work is so colorful, irreverently naïve, hilarious, and simultaneously immaculately designed and executed, and I think it would just make for the best picture book stuff.
Thank you so much to Shawn for taking time to answers some questions! Her Right Foot published from Chronicle Books earlier this year!
Special thanks to Shawn for use of these images!
Shawn Harris is an artist and musician who lives and works in Morongo Valley, California. He began doing record and poster art for his own band the Matches in 2003, moving on to illustrate for bigger musicians such as Adele, Snoop Dogg, and 311. His first picture book "Her Right Foot", written by Dave Eggers, was the recipient of six starred reviews. Shawn and Eggers have a follow-up picture book slated for Fall 2018, entitled "What Can a Citizen Do?"
Here he talks us through his illustration process.
I work in the Mojave desert, in a hole underground, where I keep cool and hide, like the rest of the animals out here.
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My art studio doubles as my music recording studio, so when I’m making art, I have an audience of tape machines and speakers. Notice the retired ladder that functions as my overhead lighting and camera rig.
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My final medium is usually cut paper and ink…
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but I start with a thumbnail and then a sketch in graphite.
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Then I do a Photoshop color study with my Wacom Intuos 3 tablet, where I figure out how many pieces of paper I’ll be using. I like to limit my palette as much as possible, to imitate a sort of cut paper version of a spot color print.
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I often think that I could stop here, and get away with a simpler process, but when I cut out my paper shapes, and photograph them, with my Canon Mark III, it makes the digital mock-up look like a basketball without air, or a deer lying by the side of a road, and I’m glad I didn’t settle on my process.
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For Dave Eggers’ latest non-fiction hardcover, I did stop at the digital drawing stage, because the debossing, embossing, and foil stamping added that tactile finish to the cover.
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You can see how much the beautiful printing and chosen materials add to my submitted file, which looks lifeless on screen, compared to the object we created
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Dave wanted his true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee, but finds himself trapped in Sana'a by civil war, to jump off of the shelf like a classic Jules Verne adventure novel, so I went and found some classic Vernes, and infused the look with contemporary images of San Francisco, the Yemeni countryside, AK-47s, and added some ornamental work inspired by photos of architectural filigree in Sana'a.
Here's my first sketch:
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When working in cut paper, I always photograph my finished work, as opposed to scanning it, because I like accentuating shadows by moving my lights around my overhead camera rig (an out-of-use ladder that now lives above my desk.) Here are a few pieces that accentuate that extra dimension, from my newest picture book with Dave, called “What Can A Citizen Do?” (pub date Sept 11, 2018, Chronicle Books)
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Having an overhead rig is also handy if I feel like doing a bit of stop-motion, or capturing time-lapse video of my process [for Her Right Foot]:
Her Right Foot is a new picture book about the Statue of Liberty and all that she stands for, written by Dave Eggers and illustrated by Shawn Harris. Coming September 19th, available for preorder today: http://cbks.co/mhRR30eDlH8 "I want to hold this book in one hand and a torch in the other and stand on an island someplace so everyone can see."
An Interview with Shawn Harris
May 6, 2021 Comments Offon An Interview with Shawn Harris
Earlier this week, I talked about how much I adore the new picture book, Have You Ever Seen a Flower? Today, I’m back with an interview I did with its creator, Shawn Harris, in which we talk about his inspiration for the book, his musical past, what neon pink says to him, why he loves school visits, and the super exciting new projects he’s working on. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Me: Welcome, Shawn! Thank you so much for dropping in today. I am delighted to have the chance to chat with you about your authorial debut picture book, Have You Ever Seen a Flower?, one of my very favorites of the year. I’ve been a fan of your art for years—both Her Right Foot (written by Dave Eggers) and A Polar Bear in the Snow (written by your good pal, Mac Barnett) have been the subject of previous blog posts—so I was excited to see you trying your hand at writing, too. What made you decide to take the plunge? And where did the idea for this special picture book come from?
Shawn: In my former life, I was a touring songwriter, so I’ve been writing since I was a kid penning lyrics. This was the first time my authorial tone conjured images since I’ve been working in the picture book world, so I set out to illustrate the words. It’s almost a song in book form, really. There’s a theme and an arc to the narration, but I hop around my subject really loosely, and dip in and out of different meters, which is the way I like to approach writing music.
Me: We need to talk about the color palette. THAT NEON PINK! Corinna Luyken (who was recently interviewed here) has affectionately called yours a “sister book” to her latest, The Tree in Me, and it is funny how you both landed on neon pink—a decidedly unnatural color—for your respective stories about our connection to the natural world. Did you know immediately that you wanted to invoke a neon vibe for the book?
Shawn: Yeah, we did some tests substituting the neon pink in for normal magenta, and the results got activated by natural light in this incredible way that made me walk toward windows and open doors with the book. Good design elevates the meaning of the work—this ink says, “find the Sun.”
Me: “Find the Sun.” I love that. You’ve shared some terrific videos on Instagram demonstrating the mediums you used for Have You Ever Seen a Flower?—including cut-paper stencils and 7-in-1 colored pencils. One of the things that strikes me is how different this art feels from your previous books. More frenetic, perhaps. Larger, freer expanses of color. That said, even though Her Right Foot and A Polar Bear in the Snow both utilize cut-paper collage, they are quite different from each other, too. I guess what I’m saying is, you’re quite the chameleon! Is it your intent to experiment with different art forms in each book? What’s your process for landing on what you want to do, and what are some of the things that never change?
Shawn: I like to let a manuscript determine the mediums I use. Often, I like using art supplies that the kids reading my books might already have access to. It’s fun to do school visits and share my techniques with kids. I probably learn as much from watching them make art as they do from me. I know that stylistically, I’m drawn to big shapes and bold colors, but beyond that, my style shifts to meet the author’s tone, and experimenting with different mediums is one way that I keep pushing myself to build new and different worlds in each book. Ed Emberley is a favorite of mine—his range, from the simple how-to-draw stuff, to the woodcuts in Drummer Hoff (and everything in between), comes to mind when I think about an artist who created a range of work in a variety of mediums. I wouldn’t mind shadowing his career in the least.
Me: Another thing I love about this picture book is the way it straddles real and make-believe. It kind of goes off the rails…in the best possible way. (The best picture books are always a little trippy, don’t you think?) How did you find the right tone for this?
Shawn: Being alive is a little trippy, I think; the way our sensory inputs lead to thoughts, which separate our sense of self from a whole. I just wanted to gently illuminate that path between us and the natural world, so that we may travel it readily. So literally, the book is a trip.
Me: Yours seems to be part of a rising wave of picture books that speak to our curiosity and wonder about the natural world. Do you think this trend is born out of the pandemic—the way we’ve been forced to slow down and look to nature for entertainment?
Shawn: I tend to forget how recharged I get by sitting in a meadow, where my busy brain slows and recalibrates. I wanted to make a book to remind myself (and my readers) of that connection, which does get obfuscated by elements of modern life. I’m certainly not alone in thinking that something fundamental must shift to reestablish a healthier relationship with the earth.
Me: With the array of amazing reading possibilities, it’s such an exciting time to be a young reader. What advice do you have for parents looking to inspire a love of reading in their children?
Shawn: Just read. Read to your kids, but also, read to yourself. More than what we’re trying to teach them, kids learn by our examples!
Me: Any particular favorites you wish you could will into the lap of every child?
Shawn: Wow, well, every reader is different, but A Hole is to Dig by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Sendak, is one of my all-time favs that probably wouldn’t end up in the lap of most kids right now, but I can’t imagine any kid (or adult) not loving it.
Me: That’s so interesting, because I actually mentioned Krauss in connection with your book in my review on Tuesday! What’s next for you? Do you have books in the works that you’d like to tell us about?
Shawn: For families getting ready to potty train, I’ve got a book coming out in the fall called Doing Business, and for kids getting into graphic novels, me and my oldest friend Mac Barnett have a series coming out a year from now called The First Cat in Space, which we started writing and streaming in front of a weekly audience at the start of the pandemic. You can watch it in “live-cartoon” form here, while you’re waiting for it to be published!
Me: Both of those sound fabulous—I can hardly wait. Thank you so much for all your time today, Shawn!
Shawn: Great questions, thank you Melissa!
Did you enjoy this post? Make sure you don’t miss others! Enter your email on the right hand side of my homepage, and you’ll receive a new post in your inbox 3-4 times a month. Plus, follow me on Instagram (@thebookmommy), where I’m most active these days, posting reviews and updates on what my kids are reading, or Facebook (What To Read To Your Kids) and Twitter (@thebookmommy).
Have You Ever Seen a Flower? is published by Chronicle Books. All opinions are my own. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through the links above, although I prefer we also shop local and support our communities when we can.
Her Right Foot. By Dave Eggers. Illus. by Shawn Harris. Oct. 2017., 104p. Chronicle, $19.99 (9781452162812). 973. Gr. 1-3.
She's quite a lady, that Statue of Liberty, and here, in sprightly text and pictures, is all you ever wanted to know about her (and perhaps a bit more). She came to us as a gift from France in 1885, to retrospectively celebrate our country's centennial. She was a prodigious gift, standing 305 feet above the water and weighing 450,000 pounds, and came in 214 massive parts to be assembled into America's largest sculpture. So far, so predictable, but here's where it goes offbeat. Eggers' focus is not on the torch or the seven-spiked crown or any other customary feature; instead, he focuses on her right foot, which, with its heel lifted off the ground, is caught in midstride. Yes, the statue is walking somewhere. Eggers has his own theory as to where and why (spoiler alert: it has to do with liberty and freedom). The author's informal, good-humored text is expanded by Harris' cut-paper and ink pictures, which range in size from sketches to double-page spreads. In a time when immigration is a hot-button issue, it's good to be reminded that Lady Liberty continues to lift her lamp beside the golden door.--Michael Cart
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Cart, Michael. "Her Right Foot." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 1, 1 Sept. 2017, p. 92. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A509161652/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c87d58e4. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Eggers, Dave HER RIGHT FOOT Chronicle (Children's Informational) $19.99 9, 19 ISBN: 978-1-4521-6281-2
Everyone knows what the Statue of Liberty stands for--but, as Eggers notes, she's not actually "standing" at all. Taking his time, as usual, at getting to the point, Eggers opens with the often told tale of the monument's origins, preliminary construction, deconstruction, and shipping to "a city called New York, which is in a state also called New York." He describes the statue's main features, from crown to gown ("a very heavy kind of garment," likely to cause "serious lower back issues")--and points out that her right heel is not planted but lifted. What does this signify? That "...she is walking! This 150 foot woman is on the go!" She's stepping out into the harbor, he suggests, to give new arrivals from Italy and Norway, Cambodia and Estonia, Syrians, Liberians, and all who have or will come an eager welcome. After all, he writes, she's an immigrant too, and: "She is not content to wait." In Harris' ink-and-construction-paper collages, Parisian street scenes give way to close-up views of the brown (later green) ambulatory statue, alternating with galleries of those arrivals and their descendants, who are all united in their very diversity of age, sex, dress, and skin color. Photos, including one of the Emma Lazarus poem, cap this urgent defense of our "Golden Door." Occasionally mannered but heartfelt throughout and indisputably timely. (bibliography, source list) (Picture book. 9-13, adult)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Eggers, Dave: HER RIGHT FOOT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2017, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A499572701/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8866454d. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Her Right Foot
by Dave Eggers; illus. by Shawn Harris
Primary, Intermediate Chronicle 104 pp.
9/17 978-1-4521-6281-2 $19.99
In digressive, idiosyncratic prose, Eggers outlines the history of the Statue of Liberty, gradually leading readers into the detail he's really interested in--the statue's right foot, poised as if to take a step. While it takes rather a long time to get there, the book's point that "the Statue of Liberty is an immigrant, too. And this is why she's moving" is well made and worthy of attention. However, Eggers clutters up the resonance of his theme with arch posturings ("You have likely heard of a place called France," begins the book) and twee asides (in teasing us about the statue's intended destination, Eggers asks, "Is she going to the West Village to look for vintage Nico records?"). Such fatuities surround the interesting facts about the statue's construction and Eggers's heartfelt thoughts about its meaning with a sea of banality. While the construction-paper collage illustrations aren't always stylistically coherent from page to page, individual illustrations are frequently arresting, such as a silhouette portrait of the statue seemingly gliding past a full moon in a salmon-hued sky.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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Sutton, Roger. "Her Right Foot." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 93, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2017, p. 120. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A515012662/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=fa9d251f. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
What Can a Citizen Do?
Dave Eggers, illus. by Shawn Harris. Chronicle, $17.99 (52p), ISBN 978-1-4521-7313-9
In manifesto-style language, Eggers (The Lifters) exhorts readers to get together and get involved ("Do something for another. Don't you dare doubt that you can!"), while elaborate cut-paper illustrations by Harris (Her Right Foot) follow a group of children who slowly transform a little island with a single tree into a lively tree house society. When a posted "No trumpets" sign excludes a trumpet player, the founders amend the sign to "OK trumpets," showing that building community, literally and figuratively, demands a willingness to compromise. Eggers's narration is sometimes literal, sometimes oblique ("Yes! A citizen can be a bear," he writes, as the kids welcome a huge bear to their group), but it's never less than stirring. The dimensionality and complexity of Harris's illustrations, mean-while, beautifully embody the messy realities and exciting potential of the civic enterprise. The cast of characters is forthrightly diverse, including a girl wearing a hi jab and a child of indeterminate gender wearing a baseball cap, big boots, and a tutu. As Eggers writes, "Who can a citizen be?/ A citizen is just like you." Ages 5-8. Author's and illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"What Can a Citizen Do?" Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 26, 25 June 2018, pp. 188+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A545023489/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=58f8a397. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Eggers, Dave WHAT CAN A CITIZEN DO? Chronicle (Children's Fiction) $17.99 9, 11 ISBN: 978-1-4521-7313-9
Following Her Right Foot (2017), Eggers and Harris team up for a second time to try to answer their timely titular question.
"What in the world can a citizen do? / Who can a citizen be?" The book's answers are simple and idealistic. A citizen can "help a neighbor," "join a cause," "plant a tree," "write a letter." A citizen should "be engaged," "care and care," "build things, save things." For those new to the concept of citizenship, some aspects of the text are misleading: How are they to understand "A citizen can be a bear. / Yes! A citizen can be a bear"? The statement that "A citizen's not what you are--a citizen is what you do" is both opaque and painfully insensitive to America's practiced definition of citizenship both historically and contemporarily, which denies the humanity of those not legally deemed citizens. Harris' mixed-media collage illustrations feature a palette of muddy pinks, deep blues, and earthy browns and tans. The illustrations are generally overcrowded and frequently muddle, rather than illuminate, the potential message of Eggers' text. A diverse group of children is featured in the illustrations, including a beige child with a shaved head, baseball cap, and tulle skirt; a brown child wearing a hijab; and twins with brown skin and Afros.
A disappointing effort that aims high but misses the mark. (Picture book. 5-8)
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"Eggers, Dave: WHAT CAN A CITIZEN DO?" Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2018, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A548137912/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2d180b63. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
What Can a Citizen Do?
By Dave Eggers. Illus. by Shawn Harris.
Sept. 2018. 52p. Chronicle, $17.99 (9781452173139). PreS-Gr. 2. 323.6.
Citizenship is a hotly contested issue around the globe, with worldwide events, and sometimes crises, involving refugees hoping for relocation and maybe even future citizenship. It may be hard for young children to grasp at times the abstract concept of citizenry, but Eggers, recently of Her Right Foot (2017), gives it a go, focusing on commonalities in gentle rhymes: "A citizen can help a neighbor. A citizen can join a cause. A citizen can write a letter. A citizen can help change laws." Through simple words placed upon two-page spreads, Eggers displays how citizens, even young ones (and even a bear!), can contribute to society. Readers will be delighted by Harris' inclusive collages, which vibrantly depict a world of different types of citizens. Like Her Right Foot, this is also a book that adults will take something away from, especially in the midst of our current divisive politics. Regardless of age, Eggers' main message should hit home: "a citizen cannot forget the world is more than you."--Jessica Anne Bratt
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Bratt, Jessica Anne. "What Can a Citizen Do?" Booklist, vol. 114, no. 22, 1 Aug. 2018, p. 64. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A550613293/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=655e59be. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Everyone's Awake. By Colin Meloy. Illus. by Shawn Harris. Mar. 2020.48p. Chronicle, $17.99 19781452178059). K-Gr. 2.
Late at night, in a lighthouse-topped island mansion, a young boy lies in bed listening to the sounds of his family, all still awake. It begins innocently--"Grandma's at her needlework / Dad is baking bread"--with the family partaking in ordinary activities, but then, as a dripping, green ghost ship rises out of the surrounding waters, the energy begins to build, and the family's antics grow increasingly frenzied. Meloy's musical text, always bouncing forward in Seussian rhythms, builds along with the action: "Grandma's on to playing whist / with long-dead / Grandpa Paul, / and the dog / has started throwing darts / against my / bedroom wall." It's an exercise in energetic absurdity, a busier, edgier, and more grounded take on Eric Carle's The Nonsense Show, with Harris' primary spot-colored illustrations capturing the intensity and charm. References to topics such as Baudelaire, Pulitzers, and coup d'etats will go over youngsters' heads but nonetheless fit with the ludicrous escalation. By the end, the characters crash in exhaustion, and little ones should, too. An enticing bedtime alternative. --Ronny Khuri
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Khuri, Ronny. "Everyone's Awake." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2020, p. 100. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A613203102/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8492b4af. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Meloy, Colin EVERYONE'S AWAKE Chronicle (Children's Fiction) $17.99 3, 3 ISBN: 978-1-4521-7805-9
An energetic, insomniac romp of an anti-bedtime book.
A wakeful child narrator recounts the goings-on in a large, multiracial family's zany household long after everyone should be asleep. Rhyming verse with a singsong cadence details activities ranging from the mundane ("Grandma's at her needlework. / Dad is baking bread. / My brother's making laundry lists / of every book he's read") to the bizarre ("Now Mom just took an audience / with Queen Sigrid the Third. / My brother has just taught the cat a dozen dirty words"). It's a rollicking read-aloud, but inconsistent line breaks may cause some to slip up upon first reading. Pop-culture references pep things up and range from the stodgy (Sinatra, "Clementine") to the very contemporary (poke tattoos, the film Condorman), though the conceit drags on a bit too long. Throughout, Harris' illustrations have a retro feel that evokes, at turns, Tomie Ungerer and Maira Kalman, and they expand on the details of the text to ratchet up the humor and drama--building on the mention of a lake to depict the setting not as a mere house but an elaborate lighthouse. The conclusion shows the narrator descending the stairs to find everyone asleep at daybreak, a predictable, yet satisfying, end.
Don't sleep on this one. (Picture book. 3-7)
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"Meloy, Colin: EVERYONE'S AWAKE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A608364593/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=aa253a39. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
A Polar Bear in the Snow. By Mac Barnett. Illus. by Shawn Harris. Oct. 2020. 40p. Candlewick, $17.99 (9781536203967). PreS-Gr. 2.
A polar bear awakens in the snow. Where is he going? Not to visit the seals; not to hunker down in a cave; and certainly not to meet a man. Instead he dives playfully into the sea, swims for a bit, then re-emerges and waddles off. Barnett's spare text is succinct for squirmy toddlers, predictable for emergent readers, and yet sophisticated enough to imply much more. "Is he going to visit the seals? / No. He is not hungry" makes clear that although a visit sounds friendly, the result would not be. Harris' cut-paper-and-ink illustrations begin with a blank white page (exploiting the joke that a polar bear in snow is invisible), then gradually reveal his inky facial features, and finally his layered, cut-paper body. The spreads are mostly black and white, although some gray is used for backgrounds and shading, and blues and greens are introduced for the aquatic scenes. The four spreads depicting his undersea adventures are particularly appealing, portraying the bear swimming playfully among myriad sea creatures. With a snarky ending that Barnett readers have come to expect ("Where will he go then? / Who knows?"), this can be widely shared with little ones participating in one-on-one lap sits and toddler story hours, as well as those beginning to read independently.--Kay Weisman
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Weisman, Kay. "A Polar Bear in the Snow." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 1-2, 1 Sept. 2020, p. 116. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A637433655/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a73db984. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
A Polar Bear in the Snow
Mac Barnett, illus. by Shawn Harris. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-0396-7
Barnett (Paolo, Emperor of Rome) and Harris (Everyone's Awake) open with an empty sheet of heavily textured white paper. "There is a polar bear in the snow," the text reads, and a page turn reveals a few delicate charcoal marks: the bear's black snout emerges ("he lifts his nose/ to sniff the air"). A reframe reveals the polar bear's huge body, rendered in graceful curves of stiff white paper. "Where is he going?" Barnett asks. Subsequent spreads show the seals that the bear is not going to visit ("He is not hungry") and the cave he is not going to hunker down in ("His fur protects him from the storm"). In photographed collages, the shadows of superimposed forms offer a sense of depth and even distance. The polar bear approaches the sea, leaps in, and dives and spins. One mesmerizing spread views the bear deep underwater, sun shining through the depths, surrounded by fish. Barnett's humor, just right for littlest readers, adds warmth, while Harris concentrates on the elemental beauty of Arctic life with minimalist forms and simple textures that contrast the fragility of the paper with the strength of the bear. Ages 3-7.
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"A Polar Bear in the Snow." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 49, 2 Dec. 2020, p. 24. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A646895708/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d71a2451. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
A Polar Bear in the Snow Mac Barnett, illus. by Shawn Harris. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-0396-7
Barnett (Paolo, Emperor of Rome) and Harris (Everyone's Awake) open with an empty sheet of heavily textured white paper. "There is a polar bear in the snow," the text reads, and a page turn reveals a few delicate charcoal marks: the bear's black snout emerges ("he lifts his nose/ to sniff the air"). A reframe reveals the polar bear's huge body, rendered in graceful curves of stiff white paper. "Where is he going?" Barnett asks. Subsequent spreads show the seals that the bear is not going to visit ("He is not hungry") and the cave he is not going to hunker down in ("His fur protects him from the storm"). In photographed collages,the shadows of superimposed forms offer a sense of depth and even distance. The polar bear approaches the sea, leaps in, and dives and spins. One mesmerizing spread views the bear deep underwater, sun shining through the depths, surrounded by fish. Barnett's humor, just right for littlest readers, adds warmth, while Harris concentrates on the elementalbeauty of Arctic life with minimalist forms and simple textures that contrast the fragility of the paper with the strength of the bear. Ages 3-7. (Oct.)
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"A Polar Bear in the Snow." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 36, 7 Sept. 2020, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A636081480/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=deb68fb8. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Shawn Harris. Chronicle, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4521-8270-4
Leaving a huddle of pencil-gray skyscrapers in its wake, a car holding a city's single colorful denizen heads for wide-open country and into hills covered with wildflowers. A child with long, multi-hued hair, a white terrier at their heels, runs into a variegated meadow awash in hues. "Have you ever seen a flower?" a voice asks, then presses further: "I mean really...// seen a flower?" The child buries their face amid the field's blooms. "Have you ever seen a flower using nothing but your nose?" The persistent questioning is matched by the visual intensity of the spreads, colored-pencil drawings bursting with energy, angular shapes in rainbow hues that are bounded by crisp-edged negative space. Attention is paid first to the senses as ways of knowing nature deeply, and then to the idea of aliveness itself. "Life is inside you," the voice says. "Now sip a drip of water..." it instructs, "Feel it slip and trickle all the way down to your roots. Do you feel yourself growing?" With assurance and passion in his solo debut, Harris (A Polar Bear in the Snow) connects readers to the stirrings of life in all its forms. Ages 3-5. Agent: Steven Mali, Writers House. (May)
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"Have You Ever Seen a Flower?" Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 10, 8 Mar. 2021, p. 51. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A655475130/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a0f87720. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Have You Ever Seen a Flower? By Shawn Harris. Illus. by the author. May 2021. 48p. Chronicle, $17.99 (9781452182704). PreS-Gr. 2.
A blue-eyed child, tan with flowing blond hair, escapes the dreary, black-and-gray city for a trip to the country, which bursts with blended layers of neon greens, pinks, yellows, and blues. As the child frolics in flower-laden fields, the reader is addressed with questions about their experience with nature, quickly turning abstract. "Have you ever seen a flower using nothing but your nose? ... what do you see? Raindrops made of honey? The knees of bumblebees? A fancy lady?" The text takes readers on an imaginative journey inside flowers, activating all the senses and gradually thinning the distance between the human body and nature, until the two become one, prompting readers to imagine themselves as the flower, to feel themselves growing and stretching toward the sun. There's a deep intensity to all the proceedings, rooted in the astounding, dense colored-pencil illustrations and extending to the metaphoric text, which reaches for an odd sort of physical intimacy with the reader. Creative, dazzling, and fearless, Harris' authorial debut marks an auspicious new chapter to his picture-book career.--Ronny Khuri
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Khuri, Ronny. "Have You Ever Seen a Flower?" Booklist, vol. 117, no. 17, 1 May 2021, p. 50. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A662304645/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b5a1a589. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Harris, Shawn HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A FLOWER? Chronicle Books (Children's None) $17.99 5, 4 ISBN: 978-1-4521-8270-4
A young urbanite romps through floral fields and deep into a flower’s anatomy, exploring humanity’s connection to nature.
A solo car travels away from the dense, gray cityscape. Mountains rise up, full of pattern and light, before revealing a fluorescent field of flowers. A child bursts from the car across the page, neon-rainbow hair streaming in the wind, as both child and place radiate joy and life. The brown-skinned, blue-eyed youngster breathes in the meadow and begins an adventure—part Jamberry, part “Thumbelina,” and part existential journey as the child realizes the life force running through the veins of the flower is the same that runs through all of us, from the water that sustains to the sun that grows. Harris’ colored-pencil illustrations are full of energy and spontaneity. His use of patterning and graphic symbology evoke Oaxacan design, yet the style is all his own. The text is equally enthusiastic: “Have you ever seen / a flower so deep / you had to shout / HELLO / and listen for an echo / just to know / how deep it goes?” The text shifts abruptly from metaphor to metaphor, in one spread the flower likened to a palace and a few pages later, to human anatomy. Nevertheless, like the protagonist and the natural environment, readers will feel themselves stretch and bloom.
A visual feast teeming with life. (Picture book. 3-7)
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"Harris, Shawn: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A FLOWER?" Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A656696369/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=cf230c5d. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Doing Business
Shawn Harris. Norton Young Readers, $17.95 (40p) ISBN 978-1-324-01566-6
Harris (Have You Ever Seen a Flower?) takes a time-honored toilet training euphemism and runs with it, using poster-like ink-and-brush art and saturated digital colors to infuse every page with mischievous energy and genuine encouragement. "Whose business is this?" asks the narrator, as an authoritative, orange-toned hand points to a pile of poo on the carpet. Readers know the answer, having seen a fluffy white dog wearing a bright blue coat guiltily hiding beneath a desk (blue haberdashery is a visual leitmotif). But Harris checks in with other poopers-in-progress anyway, underscoring that doing one's business is perfectly natural in a species-appropriate place. En route to the book's close, the survey of would-be rug-soilers reveals whom the culprit isn't. The pile is too small for an elephant and too big for a ladybug, grown-ups poop in the toilet (clutching their phones and laptops), and "Bears do business in the woods. Cats do business in a box." Cleverly, Harris incidentally categorizes readers as part of the smart set: upon noticing a full kids' potty, the narrator asks, "Wait. Who did this business? You did this business? This is good. Good business." It's poop positivity at its best. Ages 3-5. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Aug.)
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"Doing Business." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 21, 24 May 2021, p. 81. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A663666140/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=70368f69. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Harris, Shawn DOING BUSINESS Norton Young Readers (Children's None) $17.95 8, 31 ISBN: 978-1-324-01566-6
A dressed-up Everyone Poops.
Harris’ art style is similar to Chris Raschka’s, with thick, black outlines and a flat aesthetic. He sets the stage for a whodunit potty-time story by introducing a small, white dog clad in a blue sports jacket. Rather than anthropomorphizing the pooch, the clothing emphasizes the titular word business. Is this character a tiny, canine CEO? No. The dog remains on all fours, and rather than taking a seat in a chair, it scurries under a large desk in the first, wordless spreads. Meanwhile, a loafered human foot strides across the carpeted floor, and then the first words read, “Uh-oh…” as the feet stop before a brown lump on the floor. In the next double-page spread, a finger points: “Whose business is this?” While readers may immediately connect the dots, the narrator rattles off a series of statements to reject other potential culprits. “The baby does business in a diaper,” and “Daddy does business in the bathroom,” are two such statements, with art showing, respectively, a diapered baby and a man seated on a toilet, naked from the waist down and staring into his smartphone. Images show animals (most wearing the blue suit coat, with fish and birds in neckties) at various stages of defecation. “Everyone is doing business,” the text enthuses. “Business is good.” After everybody else is rejected as the offender, the dog is named and sent outside…to do more business.
Sh—, er, stuff happens. (Picture book. 2-5)
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"Harris, Shawn: DOING BUSINESS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667042190/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a7aa9f32. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Barnett, Mac THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE ATE PIZZA Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's None) $15.99 5, 10 ISBN: 978-0-06-308408-7
Will extragalactic rats eat the moon?
Can a cybernetic toenail clipper find a worthy purpose in the vast universe? Will the first feline astronaut ever get a slice of pizza? Read on. Reworked from the Live Cartoon series of homespun video shorts released on Instagram in 2020 but retaining that "we're making this up as we go" quality, the episodic tale begins with the electrifying discovery that our moon is being nibbled away. Off blast one strong, silent, furry hero--"Meow"--and a stowaway robot to our nearest celestial neighbor to hook up with the imperious Queen of the Moon and head toward the dark side, past challenges from pirates on the Sea of Tranquility and a sphinx with a riddle ("It weighs a ton, but floats on air. / It's bald but has a lot of hair." The answer? "Meow"). They endure multiple close but frustratingly glancing encounters with pizza and finally deliver the malign, multiheaded Rat King and its toothy armies to a suitable fate. Cue the massive pizza party! Aside from one pirate captain and a general back on Earth, the human and humanoid cast in Harris' loosely drawn cartoon panels, from the appropriately moon-faced queen on, is light skinned. Merch, music, and the original episodes are available on an associated website.
Epic lunacy. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)
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"Barnett, Mac: THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE ATE PIZZA." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A695027120/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=dfa4bc5a. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza #1)
Mac Barnett, illus. by Shawn Harris. HarperCollins/Tegen, $15.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-308408-7
Adapting the "Live Cartoon" series that shares this title's name, Barnett (John's Turn) and Harris (Have You Ever Seen a Flower?) replace innovative papercraft and DIY camerawork with an assured graphic novel collaboration. When rats from another galaxy begin devouring the moon, Earth's smartest scientists dispatch a cybernetically enhanced cat--the First Cat in Space-to deal with the thteat. Accompanied by a guileless, toenail-clipping robot named LOZ 4000 and the proud Moon Queen, First Cat adventures across a madcap geography (frozen wastelands, violent seas, living forests) to confront the Rat King. An effective fluid panel structure and frequent perspective changes propel this fast-paced escapade from gag to gag in location after increasingly improbable location. Harris uses a thick, confident line to create an expansive cast of dynamic characters (mostly lightskinned) out of simple shapes, filled and shaded with textural colored pencil. In full, vivid color, the loose cartoon style exudes an infectious glee, flawlessly matching Barnett's freewheeling, absurdist humor and plotting. Includes sheet music to one of the original series' tunes, plus a link to a full collection of tracks. Ages 8-12. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (May)
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Malk, Steven. "The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza #1)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 15, 11 Apr. 2022, p. 74. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A700925634/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=fa240856. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza # 1)
Mac Barnett, illus. by Shawn Harris. HarperCollins/Tegen, $15.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-308408-7
Adapting the "Live Cartoon" series that shares this title's name, Barnett (John's Turn) and Harris (Have You Ever Seen a Flower?) replace innovative papercraft and DIY camerawork with an assured graphic novel collaboration. When rats from another galaxy begin devouring the moon, Earth's smartest scientists dispatch a cybernetically enhanced cat--the First Cat in Space--to deal with the threat. Accompanied by a guileless, toenail-clipping robot named LOZ 4000 and the proud Moon Queen, First Cat adventures across a madcap geography (frozen wastelands, violent seas, living forests) to confront the Rat King. An effective fluid panel structure and frequent perspective changes propel this fast-paced escapade from gag to gag in location after increasingly improbable location. Harris uses a thick, confident line to create an expansive cast of dynamic characters (mostly light-skinned) out of simple shapes, filled and shaded with textural colored pencil. In full, vivid color, the loose cartoon style exudes an infectious glee, flawlessly matching Barnett's freewheeling, absurdist humor and plotting. Includes sheet music to one of the original series' tunes, plus a link to a full collection of tracks. Ages 8-12.
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"The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza # 1)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 49, 23 Nov. 2022, p. 118. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A728494040/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=47f7125a. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
The Eyes and the Impossible. By Dave Eggers. Illus. by Shawn Harris. May 2023. 256p. Knopf, $18.99 (9781524764203). Gr. 4-7.
Johannes has always lived his life as a free dog in a vast park by the sea. Three captive elderly bison are the Keepers of the Equilibrium and overseers of the land, and they've dubbed Johannes "the Eyes," as his agility and observant gaze allow him to notice the park's happenings and report back to the bison. An assortment of wild animals assists Johannes on his daily intel gatherings, and he's content in his dear friendships and freedom. But change is afoot: an enormous building containing mesmer izing rectangles is being built, a herd of mysterious creatures has set up shop in a field, and a heroic act brings Johannes intense human scrutiny that impedes his duties as the Eyes. It will require all of Johannes' ingenu ity, kindness, and speed to navigate the new developments while maintaining his precious independence. The utterly delightful book is narrated by a distinctly canine voice similar to the narrator's in Eggers' short story "After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned," and though Johannes is prone to matter-of-fact bragging and hilarious exaggeration, he's also capable of profound introspection and appreciation of life's wonders. Eggers touches on deep topics with a light hand, effortlessly building suspense and a wonderful sense of adventure. A merry reminder to face the truth about the world and ourselves with compassion, curiosity, and joy.--Emily Graham
Caption: Art by Shawn Harris from The Eyes and the Impossible, by Dave Eggers
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Graham, Emily. "The Eyes and the Impossible." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 12, 15 Feb. 2023, pp. 64+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A738954456/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a1ba4099. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
The Eyes and the Impossible
Dave Eggers, illus. by Shawn Harris. Knopf, $18.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-524764-20-3; McSweeney's, $28 (250p) ISBN 978-1-952119-45-3
In this exuberant illustrated novel by previous collaborators Eggers and Harris (What Can a Citizen Do?), high-spirited narrator Johannes is an "unkept and free" dog entrusted by the Keepers of the Equilibrium--three penned Bison who oversee the park where they all live--to be the park's Eyes. Aided by a team of "comrades, allies" known as the Assistant Eyes (seagull Bertrand, squirrel Sonja, pelican Yolanda, and raccoon Angus), Johannes reports each day's occurrences to the Bison, including anything that might
upset the Equilibrium. When construction activity is detected, Johannes encounters "rectangles full of gorgeous commotion"--an art display that transfixes him, leading to his being leashed. After a dramatic cooperative rescue devised by the Assistant Eyes, Johannes realizes the "glory of liberation" and determines to free the Bison from their enclosure. Studded with strong opinions about the park's residents ("The ducks know nothing"), a quick-moving first-person voice melds the dog's background, beliefs, and observations. Eggers crafts a marvelous, fully fleshed protagonist in Johannes, who is at once an ebullient braggart, a faithful and intrepid operative, and a drolly humorous reporter whose compassionate narration delivers a rousing tale of community, joyful self-reliance, and the pleasures of running very, very fast. Aligning with themes of art and perspective, Hatris contributes illustrations of Johannes as added to full-page reproductions of classical landscapes. Ages 8-12. (May)
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"The Eyes and the Impossible." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 11, 13 Mar. 2023, p. 54. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A743366259/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8ca5aeb3. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Barnett, Mac THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE AND THE SOUP OF DOOM Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (Children's None) $16.99 10, 3 ISBN: 9780063084117
A taste of poisoned soup spurs the Queen of the Moon and her feline companion into embarking on a quest for a curative fruit from the orbiting orb's only golden glumpfoozle tree.
In further exploits attended by the monosyllabic, spacesuit-clad titular feline ("Meow"), Harris and Barnett bring back the cast of The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (2022), from diaper-wearing buccaneer Captain Babybeard to computerized toenail clipper LOZ 4000, for a lunar ramble past a pair of mysterious killbots, Psychic Flying Eyeballs of Death, and other hazards. Depicted in rolling arrays of changing palettes and panel sizes and led by the opalescent Queen of the Moon--who, ignoring her loudly rumbling tummy, stoutly declares that "my reign will not be cut short by soup"--the expedition fetches up at last on the edge of a bottomless crater for a last-minute save, appropriately over-the-top grandstanding by a familiar AI with futile protagonistic ambitions ("How many pages did I get this time? 73?"), and a closing celebratory soupfest, depicted Last Supper-style by a vermiform da Vinci. This volume continues the nonstop madcap fun; returning readers will not be disappointed, and new ones will quickly become avid followers of the world's first feline astronaut.
Fans of unbridled, melodramatic tomfoolery will be over the moon. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Barnett, Mac: THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE AND THE SOUP OF DOOM." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A760508228/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=41e6b691. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
BARNETT, Mac. The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom. illus. by Shawn Harris. 272p. (The First Cat in Space: Bk. 2). HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen. Oct. 2023. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780063084117.
Gr 3-5--A failed set of assassination attempts on the Moon Queen--first by serving her poisoned soup, then by a knife attack carried out by an assassin disguised as a chef--send her and her close friend First Cat on a mission to find an antidote and determine who was behind it all. After an unsuccessful attempt to reconnect with their long-missing friend LOZ 4000, the toenail clipping robot, Moon Queen and First Cat pay a visit to a wizard who reveals the Moon Queen only has 24 hours from the time she tasted the soup to find the antidote before the poison turns her to glass. With 19 hours remaining, Moon Queen and First Cat set out to obtain the antidote, and chaos ensues. In a return to form for this sequel, now entirely set on the moon, many of the features of book one are present once again: artwork that has a simple but sophisticated style in its textured, retro-hued pastel chalk appearance with heavy black line work, variable and angular panels that denote action, footnotes that provide links to real world recordings of music referenced in the story, self-referential jokes that break the fourth wall, and humorously absurd plot twists and red herrings to keep readers on their toes. VERDICT Though not as strong a showing as the first book in terms of laugh-out-loud moments, this sequel still has much to enjoy, and fans will be thrilled to see their favorite characters back in action.--Alea Perez
KEY: * Excellent In relation to other titles on the same subject or in the same genre | Tr Hardcover trade binding | Board Board book | pap. Paperback | BL Bilingual | SP Spanish
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Perez, Alea. "BARNETT, Mac. The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom." School Library Journal, vol. 69, no. 8, Aug. 2023, pp. 86+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A758507063/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0051f3b8. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn
Shawn Harris. Knopf, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-593-57188-0
The titular hero of this fanciful story by Harris (Have You Ever Seen a Flower?) lives in a castle with his siblings, Fancy Annie and Prince Butterscotch, and parents. Fresh chalk-pastel drawings and a confident narrative lay out the tiny pink being's miseries in a time when "it was common to see a unicorn." It's bad enough that everything in the castle is too big for him, but the unicorn's larger siblings also use him as a chess piece and exclude him from swimming in the moat. "A gumball would make a bigger splash than you. You're so teeny-weeny, you'd get lost in the lawn," Fancy Annie taunts. Then the small unicorn actually does get lost in the lawn, where he meets a diminutive, extremely assertive pink gnome who accuses him of having damaged her sports car, and demands repayment instead of apology ("Sorry doesn't feed the bullfrog," she says). The unicorn feels he is much too small to have made such an impact--or is he? Sly wit, distinctive characterizations, and a free hand with fairy tale elements fuel this unbridled exploration of relative influence and size. Ages 3-7. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Feb.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 PWxyz, LLC
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"The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 45, 6 Nov. 2023, p. 48. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A773694922/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=80ba6d62. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
Harris, Shawn THE TEENY-WEENY UNICORN Knopf (Children's None) $18.99 2, 6 ISBN: 9780593571880
Size is relative, even if your relatives are particularly huge.
The teeny-weeny unicorn has it tough. Everything in his kingdom, from the food to the rugs to the toys, is ginormous--at least, in his opinion. Maybe that's why the unicorn's siblings like to use him as a pawn in their chess games. When his siblings refuse to go swimming with him in the moat ("a gumball would make a bigger splash than you," his brother sneers), the unicorn runs off in a huff into the tall grasses of the castle's lawn. There, he meets a particularly teeny gnome who is furious with him. Without realizing it, our hero somehow managed to smash the gnome's sporty roadster with his "giant" hoof. Despite the unicorn's protestations that he's far too tiny to have crushed the car, the even smaller gnome insists on full repayment. Payment is forthcoming, and at last our hero's small stature works to his benefit. As the book nears its conclusion, the lesson appears to be particularly pertinent for those young readers just beginning to discover both their vastness and their insignificance at the same time. "We are all teeny-weeny. We are all giant. And we are all just the right size." Facial expressions and visual gags complement the text perfectly, all thanks to Harris' particular skill with chalk pastel. The female gnome has a bushy white beard that obscures her features; only a long pink nose is visible.
At last! A unicorn book as charming as the species it highlights. (Picture book. 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Harris, Shawn: THE TEENY-WEENY UNICORN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A774415103/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6a23aa92. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.
The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn. By Shawn Harris. Illus. by the author. Feb. 2024. 48p. Knopf, $18.99 (9780593571880). K-Gr. 3.
In a faraway land, a teeny-weeny pink unicorn lives in a large palace--well, extra-large for him. There, his regular-sized brother and sister use him as a pawn when they play chess, and they never let him cannonball off the drawbridge. Sick and tired of being left out due to his size, he runs away from home but quickly gets lost in the lawn. To his surprise, he is chastised by an even teenier garden gnome, who claims that the unicorn's giant hoof has crushed her brandnew red roadster. Feeling guilty "but also a little proud," the unicorn gallops home with the gnome to make amends. The story's end reveals a more confident, empowered little unicorn and the observation that "We are all teeny-weeny. We are all giants. And we are all just the right size." The book's tone is absolutely original, using the magical lilt and glittering language of a classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, interspersed with surprising and cheeky modernizations. Harris' chalk pastel artwork, which has previously received a Caldecott Honor (Have You Ever Seen a Flower? 2021), is no less beautiful here as it uses a mix of full-bleed spreads and spot art from inspired angles to tell the tale of our pink Lilliputian hero. A delightful, buoying romp.--Becca Worthington
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
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Worthington, Becca. "The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2024, p. 78. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A780973572/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1647a693. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.