Mac Barnett's Blog, page 4
March 31, 2012
Kirkus gives a star to Oh No! Not Again!
From Kirkus:
*OH NO! NOT AGAIN!
(Or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History) (Or At Least My History Grade)
Mac Barnett (Author) Dan Santat (Illustrator)
Having recovered from the world-destroying science project she created in the first Oh No! (2010), Barnett's overachiever has a new dilemma: Her history test is returned with one point off for incorrect answer.
Noting that "Belgium" is not the country where the oldest prehistoric cave paintings exist, she devises a solution completely out of proportion to the problem. Using a "Phun Times" Kiddie Pool as a foundation, she builds a time machine to alter history. After a few glitches (landing in a pre-Neanderthal world and then in the French Revolution), she finds her Belgian cavemen. As in the companion story, the digital compositions are framed with black horizontal borders and marked with white vertical lines to establish a cinematic context. The plot unfolds through speech bubbles, the faux-technical diagrams on graph paper covering the endpapers and the extremely funny actions and expressions of Santat's caricatures. Children will relish the two cavemen's antics: They stick paintbrushes in their noses, chomp on the palette and spray paint each other. The duo gives the transporter a spin while the frustrated scholar decorates the cave herself. She emerges to find one sporting Napoleon's hat, a Roman chariot speeding by and other anachronisms—not to mention an "F" on her test, now that history has been rearranged.
Wonderfully ridiculous in premise and execution and abounding in creative touches, this will surely spark student spinoffs. (Picture book. 5-8)
March 21, 2012
EVENT: Theater and Signing in San Carlos this Friday
On Friday I'll be attending a performance of Extra Yarn, adapted and performed by the San Carlos Children's Theater. Afterward, I'll do some reading and sign some books.
Friday, 23 March 23, 4:00pm, San Carlos, CA
The Reading Bug
March 15, 2012
Kids’ Book Couples Therapy
Kids’ Book Couples Therapy
Kids' Book Couples Therapy
Kids' Book Couples Therapy
March 9, 2012
The Tucson Festival of Books
As you can probably tell by the bat ears I am wearing from the Sonoran Desert Museum, I am in Arizona. This weekend is the Tucson Festival of books (the only place in the country you'll be able to get my new book with Adam Rex, Chloe and the Lion, until April). Here's my schedule:
SATURDAY, MARCH 10
1:00pm: Three Very Funny Guys: Humor in Writing (with Jon Scieszka and Adam Rex)
UA Mall Tent
2:00pm: Autographing with Adam Rex
4:00pm: Boys 'R Us: Creating the Neverending Series with Jon Scieszka, Phil Bildner, and Peter Lerangis.
Kiva Auditorium.
5:00pm: Autographing
SUNDAY, MARCH 11
11:30am: Chloe and the Lion: Our Author/Illustrator Relationship (with Adam Rex)
Kiva Auditorium
12:30pm: Autographing with Adam Rex
February 26, 2012
Some Events with Jon Klassen
Jon is coming up to the Bay Area and we're doing some events around town. We'll read, he'll probably draw a little, I may even draw a little. We'll answer any question and sign any book. Here's the schedule:
Sunday, March 4, 2:00pm: Petaluma, CA
Copperfield's Books
Monday, March 5, 3:30pm: Petaluma, CA
Copperfield's Books
(this is just an informal meet-and-greet and signing for people whose Monday-afternoon schedules are more open than their Sunday-afternoon schedules)
Monday, March 5, 6ish pm: Berkeley, CA
Mrs. Dalloway's
Jon and I are going to stop by and sign some books. We'll be happy to personalize them if you're there. I think there'll be some food and drinks, too, maybe.
Tuesday March 6, 10:00am: Corte Madera, CA
Book Passage
Tuesday March 6, 3:00pm: San Jose, CA
Hicklebee's
January 30, 2012
January 24, 2012
January 20, 2012
"[Extra Yarn] possesses the qualities of the old-fashioned magical realism that you find in the most..."
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