Friday’s Five: Totally Clever #Cybils Nominated Books

Lots of themes run rampant in children’s literature, especially in picture books. Anthropomorphized creatures with some sort of dilemma, children who don’t want to share or say goodbye to their mamas, and tired farm animals that will apparently convince a riled up toddler to just go to sleep already are a few examples. Every year, a ton of picture books are published. In this category for the Cybils Awards, over 200 books were nominated! I find myself looking past the books that quickly remind me of others or follow some predictable and familiar storytelling pattern.

But then there are the ones that stand out for their absolute cleverness, doing things differently with the plot, the characterizations, or the illustrations. In this installment of “Friday’s Five,” I’d like to share five picture books that stand out to me as quite unique in the genre.

1. Carnivores by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Dan Santat — When you open the cover of this straightforwardly titled book, the image of a Carnivore Food Pyramid stares back, wide-eyed animals lined up in triangular pecking order. The book focuses primarily on three of the biggest guys– the lion, the great white shark, and the timber wolf. These predators are a bit fed up with the way everyone else in their animal worlds treat them. They want to stop being snubbed and looked down upon for their eating habits, so they meet and come up with a brilliant idea… go vegetarian! How could this possibly work out? Well, by book’s end, there may be some surprised children, but nature has a way of being nature, you know?

2. No Fits, Nilson! by Zachariah OHora — A little girl named Amelia has her large, lovable, watch-wearing blue gorilla pal to help her navigate her world– a world of unwanted bathtimes, knocked down block structures, gigantic tantrums, and subsequent time-outs. Amelia is the quintessential preschooler, and all those challenges are somehow a little easier to handle with Nilson by her side, especially when she helps to calm him down from one of his fits. What will young children think about this big old gorilla? Will they be surprised by the ending’s little twist? Nah, something tells me that they’ll understand this one just fine.

3. I Dare You NOT to Yawn by Hélène Boudreau and illustrated by Serge Bloch — It will take only a few pages for parents reading this one to their children to fail the title’s dare. Trust me. I’ve tried. Oh, how my kids and I have laughed as we yawn uncontrollably with every single reading. The power of suggestion is strong with this book, I tell you, as is the level of fun. Also, Serge Bloch’s whimsical illustrations always bring some lightness to a book, and as soon as I saw the cover, I knew that we were going to enjoy it. This book is perfect fodder for a group story time (just before a preschool class’ nap time!) or for a one-on-one lap story, too.

4. The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers — The crayons in Duncan’s box have had enough. When he goes to grab them from his desk one day, he discovers a pile of letters tied together with twine in their place. Each of the colorful characters has written a note to Duncan expressing their frustrations, from being overworked or underutilized to wishing he would resolve an argument about which color is the correct one for the sun. (Green would truly like his pals orange and yellow to cut out all the bickering!) You want clever, this book has clever colored all over it. The blend of Daywalt’s voices for each of the uniquely characterized crayons with Jeffers’ brilliant illustrations made this an immediate favorite of mine when I first read it last summer.

5. I Hate Picture Books! by Timothy Young — Okay, if I’m being completely honest, I have to admit that at first glance, I wasn’t expecting much from this book. I’m not a huge fan of the illustrations, which remind me of comic strip style drawings, but once I read the book through, I was actually quite charmed by it. Then I read it with my children, and my 7 year old daughter fell in love. The concept is fairly simple, yet still unique in the genre– the boy is giving up on picture books because they either get him in trouble when he tries to mimic what he has read (think purple crayon drawings on the wall, or disappointment when his bedroom transforms into NOTHING when he gets sent to it without supper, or trying some greenish-tinted ham from the fridge). Or worse… like the one about the little bird who cannot find its mother… that made him… CRY! As you can likely predict, the boy has a change of heart when he realizes that he does actually love these picture books and cannot bear to get rid of them. But, the best part of this entire book is the plethora of picture book covers and well-known characters featured in the illustrations, created in fabulous replicated style. My kids have had a blast trying to identify as many familiar books in the pictures, which led to even lengthier conversations about why they also have loved so many of those books, too. Great idea! (Though, there is a typo with an incorrect form of ‘its,’ which makes me wonder about the editing process!)

Bonus #6. A Long Way Away by Frank Viva — I’ve already reviewed this one back in April, but the review is worth a second look because this is a truly unique artistic endeavor, and perfectly suited for a round-up of clever picture books!

If you’re reading along with me through the nominated picture books with me, I’d love to hear about which books are standing out to you!

All opinions offered here are mine alone, and do not represent the Cybils Awards.