Not a Box

A box is just a box . . . unless it's not a box. From mountain to rocket ship, a small rabbit shows that a box will go as far as the imagination allows.

Inspired by a memory of sitting in a box on her driveway with her sister, Antoinette Portis captures the thrill when pretend feels so real that it actually becomes real—when the imagination takes over and inside a cardboard box, a child is transported to a world where anything is possible.

Child Magazine

A child can have as much fun with a box as with the toy packaged in it. So when a rabbit imagines a box to be a burning building that he heroically douses with a fire hose and a rocket that he pilots to outer space, children will relate. This gently humorous book celebrates the ingenuity of kids, whose games of make-believe can spin magic out of the simplest materials. (ages 3 to 6)
The February 2007 issue of Child magazine

Antoinette Portis made her picture-book debut with the bestselling Not a Box, which was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor Book in 2007. Not a Stick followed, as well as her most recent book, A Penguin Story.

Antoinette graduated from kindergarten with a major in finger painting and a minor in show-and-tell. Later she graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts with a degree in studio art (which is like finger painting and show-and-tell combined). Antoinette lives in Los Angeles.