Revisiting My Favorite Interactive (Print!) Picture Books
Most picture books tell a story: the reader observes the story, interprets it, and enjoys it, but rarely is the reader an active part of the storytelling process. There are a few exceptions to this, as I was reminded today when my six-year-old daughter Anna asked if she could read a book to me. She chose Jon Stone’s The Monster at the End of this Book, a picture book that has been a favorite of each of our four children. It has withstood innumerable readings and has even survived major reconstructive surgery to reattach its pages to the cover with packing tape.
The premise is simple. As the title warns, there is a monster at the end of the book. And with each page turn, that monster looms closer and closer. Since Stone was working within the Sesame Street universe, the main character is Grover, a fuzzy blue monster himself. Because Grover wants to keep as far away from the monster at the end of the book, he gets increasingly agitated with each page turn. In the beginning he asks the reader: “So please do not turn the page.” Later, when the page turns get the reader closer to the monster at the end, Grover tries different antics to keep the reader from turning the pages, including tying the pages closed, or bricking the pages shut. Of course, it’s hilarious to young readers to see Grover’s reaction when the inevitable page turn happens.
Using a similar strategy, Ian Lendler imagines that his illustrator “Ned” can’t finish the pictures fast enough to keep up with the reader of An Undone Fairy Tale. “Sorry to interrupt again,” Lendler writes, “but you’re still reading very fast. Please don’t turn the page. Ned doesn’t have the horses or armor yet.” With each page turn, “Ned” must salvage his artwork by improvising; he garbs his knights in tutus, replaces a moat monster with Ned’s dog dressed in a shark fin and a snorkel, and creates a finale that must be read to be appreciated (suffice to say, the hero doesn’t quite save the day on his own). He warns his reader not to turn the page, even begging, “The next page won’t be ready for four of five weeks. So put the book down and come back then. Okay?” And what reader could resist turning the page to find out what happens next?
Rather than telling the reader not to turn the page, Mo Willems takes the interactivity in a different direction in his Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. The book opens with a bus driver who asks the reader to watch his bus, and then he even asks his reader specifically not to let the pigeon drive the bus. Whereas both Stone and Lendler used reverse psychology to encourage their readers to turn the pages (“Don’t!), Willems employs his reader with a task: keeping the pigeon from driving the bus. Each page turn is another opportunity for the reader to shout, “No!” to the pigeon, who finally has a multipage breakdown that results in giggles.
These three books do something that most picture books can’t do, which is bring the reader into the story as a participant rather than an observer. They are elegant in their simplicity and efficiency. I’ve racked my brain to imagine a plot line that would involve the reader as effectively as these do, and I still haven’t found anything that wouldn’t be simply a copy.
Do you have any favorite interactive picture books? I’d be interested to hear about them.
Where are the pictures from the books? Yes, it would be easy enough to copy and paste cover images of these books into my post, but the truth is that the book covers are copyrighted, and I neither own the copyrights nor have permission to use the images. I’ve used links to the GoodReads site to help steer readers to more information about the books.
