If Apples Had Teeth

by Shirley Glaser, Milton Glaser (Illustrator)

A book about language, play, and the relationship between words and images, If Apples Had Teeth is graphic, smart, silly, and surreal all at the same time. Language and thought come to life as counterfactuals and possibilities are conjured and proposed. The heart of the book beats with newness, reminding us that art, poetry, and story are all about creating something that doesn't yet exist in the world.



Milton Glaser (b.1929) is among the most celebrated graphic designers in the United States. He has had the distinction of one-man-shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Georges Pompidou Center. He was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum (2004) and the Fulbright Association (2011), and in 2009 he was the first graphic designer to receive the National Medal of the Arts award. He opened Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and continues to produce a prolific amount of work in many fields of design to this day.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

Reviews

[Readersaurus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a reprint of a title originally published by Knopf in 1960. The words and illustrations are delightfully wide-eyed, deranged, and possibly subversive. Apples bite back. The soup talks back! Alligators masquerade as luggage. (Watch out!) Each page posits ‘what if,’ and offers a delightfully absurd response. Some pages rhyme. Some don’t. But there’s a zippy rhythm to the text that makes for good reading aloud. Five to eight year olds who like to laugh will love this one. Young wordsmiths and artists will be eager to create their own ‘what ifs’ and draw them. It’s a book that makes the reader feel energized and want to participate.

There's nothing I didn't like about this book. It’s joyous and goofy and the color palette of yellow-orange, turquoise, pink, orange, and green is fully in the spirit of the time of its original publishing date.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wild ass tear through permutations of reality you never knew you needed.

Many of them perfectly embedded/launched from the visual:
"If a zebra wore striped pajamas, you would never know."

I love that graphic designers during this time were throwing their stuff at books for children. Here, it means that there's a salty air of adultness that hovers above -- ahh.

But! This book is too long. Weird but true. (In years since this was published I think we began to understand the perfect picture book length. Funny that we didn't know it.)

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange but charming book with lots of questions, like, what if apples had teeth? Each page offers a new question with an accompanying illustration that's so obviously from the 1960's that it's pleasing. I imagine myself, a housewife, reading this to her child with a lovely amber-brown ashtray next to her while she's smoking a Pall Mall. Overall, totally imaginative, esoteric, and quirky.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather than the exploits of a fanged apple, this is a collection of wacky if-then statements. The counterfactual conditional statements in this book will have elementary students capable of conditional reasoning rolling.

I would have preferred a Dracula apple myself.

[Deana Metzke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although you may think this book is about an apple that has teeth, its actually full of different "if..." statements, about a variety of things. I think it can go over the heads of younger children, but older elementary students would get a kick out of it.

[Mary Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't wait to share this with kids and have them write their own IFs!!

[Casandria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of silly thoughts that sometimes rhyme.

[Kristy McRae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird. Just weird. :)

[Andrea Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picture book suitable for older kids - not many words but the poetry & silliness will work for many ages.

[Lightwhisper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Achei engraçado mas não adorei a história. Gostei muito sim das ilustrações.

[João Teixeira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Várias frases divertidas, mas não propriamente memoráveis.

[Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absurdist humor both in text and illustrations that readers of all ages can enjoy!