Synopsis
At last, a grown-up brings to light some of the awful, horrible things kids must endure. A brother's smelly socks, a jump off the high-dive, or a sloppy kiss from a great-aunt—hey, childhood isn't without peril. In-your-face graphic paintings paired with droll text will have readers chuckling and sympathizing. Reviews
"This is essentially Gary Greenberg'Âs Pop-Up Book of Phobias (1999) but with a wonderful sense of how kids sometimes feel the world treats them. Expect this book to be a hit with not just younger children but their older teenage siblings as well. Turns the terrible into the terrific."-Kirkus Reviews
Children's Literature
After a warning to readers about the "terrible things" within the book, Kelley presents a double-page view, as seen by the reader, of each of 12 of life's awful moments. We look down at our shoes as, "Oooopsie!" There goes the ice cream out of our cone. "There's nothing under the bed " but tentacles rise before our eyes. The dentist looms over us, pick in hand. An elderly relative or friend comes at us, fingers ready, saying " just look at those cheeks." And so we suffer, through a nightmare birthday party, through being the new student the class looks at warily, a miserable car ride, sending the dead goldfish down the toilet, the scary view from the top of the high-diving board, etc. There is a reward, however, at the end. The front end pages show hands with pencil writing the note of warning; the back pages have the server at the ice cream counter delivering a cone to replace the one lost in the beginning. Each "terrible" happening stands alone. Naturalistic watercolors with the few words of text set in large type shock mildly but include fun in perspective. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz