Who Broke the Teapot?!
By Bill Slavin
Tundra Books
$16.99
ISBN: 978-1-77049-833-4
Ages 3-5
On shelves now

In the average life of a child, whodunits are the stuff of life itself. Who took the last cookie? Who used up all the milk and then didn’t put it on the shopping list? Who removed ALL the rolls of toilet paper that I SPECIFICALLY remember buying at the store on Sunday and now seem to have vanished into some toilet paper eating inter-dimension? The larger the family, the great the number of suspects. But picture books that could be called whodunits run a risk of actually going out and teaching something. A lesson about honesty or owning up to your own mistakes. Blech. I’ll have none of it. Hand me that copy of Bill Slavin’s Who Broke the Teapot?! instead, please. Instead of morals and sanctity I’ll take madcap romps, flashbacks, and the occasional livid cat. Loads of fun to read aloud, surprisingly beautiful to the eye, and with a twist that no one will see coming, Who Broke the Teapot?! has it all, baby. Intact teapot not included.

The scene of the crime: The kitchen. The family? Oblivious. As the mother enters the room it’s just your average morning. There’s a baby in a high chair, a brother attached to a ceiling fan by his suspenders, a dad still in his underwear reading the paper, a daughter eating pastries, a dog aiding her in this endeavor, and a cat so tangled up in wool that it’s a wonder you can still make out its paws. And yet in the doorway, far from the madding crowd, sits a lone, broken, teapot. Everyone proclaims innocence. Everyone seems trustworthy in that respect. Indeed, the only person to claim responsibility is the baby (to whom the mother tosses a dismissive, “I doubt it”). Now take a trip back in time just five minutes and all is revealed. The true culprit? You’ll have to read the book yourself. You final parting shot is the mother accepting a teapot stuck together with scotch tape and love from her affectionate offspring.

Generally when I write a picture book review I have a pretty standard format that I adhere to. I start with an opening paragraph (done), move on to a description of the plot in the next paragraph (so far, so good), and in the third paragraph I talk about some aspect of the writing. It could be the overall theme or the writing or the plotting. After that I talk about the art. This pattern is almost never mucked with . . . until today!! Because ladies and gents, you have just GOT to take a gander at what Mr. Slavin’s doing here with his acrylics. Glancing at the art isn’t going to do it. You have to pick this book up and really inspect the art. For the bulk of it the human characters are your usual cartoony folks. Very smooth paints. But even the most cursory glance at the backgrounds yields rewards. The walls are textured with thick, luscious paints adhering to different patterns. There’s even a touch of mixed media to the old affair, what with cat’s yarn being real thread and all (note too how Slavin seamlessly makes it look as if the yarn is wrapped around the legs of the high chair). Then the typography starts to get involved. The second time the mom says “Who broke the teapot?!” the words look like the disparate letters of a rushed ransom note. As emotions heat up (really just the emotions of the mom, to be honest) the thick paints crunch when she says “CRUNCHED”, acquire zigzags as her temper unfurls, and eventually belie the smoothness of the characters’ skin when the texture invades the inside of the two-page spread of the now screaming mother’s mouth.

So, good textures. But let us not forget in all this just how important the colors of those thick paints are as well. Watching them shift from one mood to another is akin to standing beneath the Northern Lights. You could be forgiven for not noticing the first, second, third, or even fourth time you read the book. Yet these color changes are imperative to the storytelling. As emotions heat up or the action on the page ramps up, the cool blues and greens ignite into hot reds, yellows, and oranges. Taken as a whole the book is a rainbow of different backgrounds, until at long last everything subsides a little and becomes a chipper cool blue.

Now kids love a good mystery, and I’m not talking just the 9 and 10-year-olds. Virtually every single age of childhood has a weakness for books that set up mysterious circumstances and then reveal all with a flourish. Heck, why do you think babies like the game of peekaboo? Think of it as the ultimate example of mystery and payoff. Picture book mysteries are, however, far more difficult to write than, say, an episode of Nate the Great. You have to center the book squarely in the child’s universe, give them all the clues, and then make clear to the reader what actually happened. To do this you can show the perpetrator of the crime committing the foul deed at the start of the book or you can spot clues throughout the story pointing clearly to the miscreant. In the case of Who Broke the Teapot, Slavin teaches (in his own way) that old Sherlock Holmes phrase, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

I love it when a book turns everything around at the end and asks the reader to think long and hard about what they’ve just seen. Remember the end of The Cat in the Hat when everything’s been cleaned up just in time and the mother comes in asking the kids what they got up to while she was gone? The book ends with a canny, “Well, what would YOU do if your mother asked YOU?” Who Broke the Teapot?! does something similar at its end as well. The facts have been laid before the readers. The baby has claimed responsibility and maybe he is to blame after all. But wasn’t the mother just as responsible? It would be very interesting indeed to poll a classroom of Kindergartners to see where they ascribe the bulk of the blame. It may even say something about a kid if they side with the baby more or the mommy more.

I also love that the flashback does far more than explain who broke the teapot. It explains why exactly most of the members of this family are dwelling in a kind of generally accepted chaotic stew. You take it for granted when you first start reading. A kid’s hanging from a ceiling fan? Sure. Yeah. That happens. But the explanation, when it comes, belies that initial response. The parents don’t question his position so you don’t question it. That is your first mistake. Never take your lead from parents. And speaking of the flashback, let’s just stand aside for a moment and remember just how sophisticated it is to portray this concept in a picture book at all. You’re asking a child audience to accept that there is a “before” to every book they read. Few titles go back in time to explain how we got to where we are now. Slavin’s does so easily, and it will be the rare reader that can’t follow him on this trip back into the past.

I think the only real mystery here is why this book isn’t better known. And its only crime is that it’s Canadian, and therefore can’t win any of the big American awards here in the States. It’s also too amusing for awards. Until we get ourselves an official humor award for children’s books, titles like Who Broke the Teapot?! are doomed to fly under the radar. That’s okay. This is going to be the kind of book that children remember for decades. They’re going to be the ones walking into their public libraries asking the children’s librarians on the desks to bring to them an obscure picture book from their youth. “There was a thing that was broken . . . like a china plate or something . . . and there was this cat tied up in string?” You have my sympathies, children’s librarians of the future. In the meantime, better enjoy the book now. Whether it’s read to a large group or one-on-one, this puppy packs a powerful punch.

On shelves now

Source: Publisher sent final copy for review.

Like This? Then Try:

• Mitzi Tulane, Preschool Detective in What’s That Smell? by Lauren McLaughlin, ill. Devvie Ridpath Ohi
• The Web Files by Margie Palatini
• I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

Big City Otto: Elephants Never Forget
By Bill Slavin
With Esperança Melo
Kids Can Press
ISBN: 978-1-55453-476-0
Ages 8-11
On shelves now

Boy, The Man With the Yellow Hat just lost all credibility, didn’t he? Time was that Curious George snatcher could nab the jungle beast of his choice, slap his hands together, and call it a day. These days, though, readers don’t take too kindly to fellows who go about grabbing the next spare primate they set their sights on. Various children’s authors have dealt with him one way or another (Furious George Goes Bananas by Michael Rex comes most immediately to mind). Big City Otto takes the idea from an entirely different bent. What if George left a friend behind? And what if that friend was an elephant? The result is something along the lines of Babar by way of Mowgli setting off on a mission to rescue Curious George. With a parrot sidekick. Can’t believe I almost forgot the parrot sidekick.

Otto the elephant is depressed. No two ways about it. You’d be pretty depressed too, mind you, if your best buddy and practically step-brother, Georgie, was up and kidnapped by some crazed man with a wooden nose and a sack. After sighing and crying over his friend’s disappearance, Crackers the parrot convinces Otto participate in a kind of a crazy scheme. Clearly Georgie was kidnapped and taken to America so all they’ll have to do is go to the U.S., find him, and rescue him. Trouble is, it’s not that simple. There’s the getting there from Africa part (extra large cargo, anyone?), finding friendly folks who can help out, interviewing zoo animals, and more. But when Otto and Crackers fall in with a pack of crocodiles with ulterior motives, locating one little monkey is the least of their problems.

In his little bio attached to this book author/illustrator Bill Slavin says he is in “Millbrook, Ontario, surrounded by his well worn Asterix collection.” The Asterix influence is indeed felt in this work. Not so much the artistic style, mind you, but definitely the pace. Never lagging, always upbeat, “Otto” makes for a quick read. And really, it was the art that attracted me to this book in the first place. Slavin’s style manages to encompass all kinds of settings and characters with ease. It can’t be simple to try to replicate the big city’s feel. You’d end up drawing sheer amounts of people more than anything else. But Slavin paces himself, and the reader could be forgiven for concentrating primarily on Otto anyway. He’s a big lovable lummox. One that’s hard to look away from.

Of course the time period is a bit of a mystery. As I see it, there are two possible reasons why this book appears to be set in 1993. Reason #1: Slavin originally wrote the book in that year and saw little reason to update it to the current day. Reason #2: He just real

The Children's Book Council hosts the Children's Choice Book Awards. The favorite book finalists for this year were determined by close to 15,000 children and teens. I highly recommend checking out these books!

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Illustrator: Bill Slavin
Published: 2009 Tundra Books (on JOMB)
ISBN: 9780887768811

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We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

For the June issue of Through the Looking Glass, I reviewed the Stanley books by Linda Bailey and Bill Slavin. If you haven't met Stanley yet, then you are in for a treat, because the books about this funny and utterly doggy dog are a joy. Here is an interview that I had with Linda and Bill:

Marya: Linda, where did the idea for the Stanley books come from in the first place?

Linda: The books started with my dog, Sophie. Stanley's Party began when I spotted dog hair on my couch and realized that Sophie, who is not allowed on the couch, was sneaking up onto it whenever we went out. I laughed ~ and wondered what else she might be doing when no one was home. I laughed some more as I started visualizing an escalating series of bad-dog behaviours; they culminated in "the best doggone party a dog ever had." That was the start.

Marya: You really get inside Stanley's head - to great effect. I have three dogs in my life and I immediately recognized Stanley's thought processes. How did you do this?

Linda: Thank you. I'm not sure. I know that when I was first thinking about getting a dog, about ten years ago, I watched dogs a lot. Any time I spotted a dog on its own -- waiting outside a store, for instance -- I stopped and made eye contact. Something about those moments really touched me. Is it true that eyes are windows to the soul? If so, dogs have a lot of soul. When I got my own puppy, Sophie -- I watched her, too, and wondered what was going on in that shaggy little head. I watch dogs all the time, and the truth is, I don't think they're that hard to figure out. Dogs make so many transparently expressive movements and sounds. They kind of wear their hearts on their sleeves, right? Or they would if they had sleeves.

Marya: Did you use your dog Sophie as a model for Stanley?

Linda: Yes, partly. I use Sophie's behavior, the sounds she makes, and so on. But psychologically, Stanley is also based partly on me, I think. I have this theory that when writers develop characters, we are often "mining" different aspects of our subconscious selves, who we are, who we would like to be, who we are scared we might be, etc. If I were a dog, I imagine that I might chafe at my non-human condition. I think I would long for freedom and adventure and a wider social life. If I were as brave/foolish as Stanley, I might act on those longings.

Marya: How do you decide what kinds of adventures Stanley is going to have?

Linda: Stanley's adventures seem to come along on their own. Stanley's Wild Ride came about when kids were skateboarding on my street, and I noticed Sophie watching. Dog . . . skateboard . . . what if Stanley were to ride a skateboard? Stanley at Sea began at the Dog Beach in Vancouver where I live. The dogs were playing in the ocean. Behind them, boats and ships sailed by. Dogs . . . boats . . . what if Stanley and his friends got into a little red boat and were swept out to sea by the current? As for Stanley's Beauty Contest, that came straight out of a "dog day" at a local park; it included a most-beautiful-dog contest. The dogs were ordinary mutts, and the prizes were minimal, but there were people there who were taking the whole thing very seriously. Me? I couldn't help wondering what the dogs were thinking about all this . . .

Marya: Do you have a writing schedule, and do you like to read children's literature in your spare time?

Linda: I don't really have a schedule. I do treat writing as a "job" in that weekday "business hours" are sacrosanct. I try to put in a real working day each day.Yes, I do read children's literature in my spare time, picture books and novels. I try to keep up with the new-and-wonderful (Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian at the moment). I also try to catch up on classics I have missed (lately, Kipling, Edward Lear and James Thurber).

Marya: The illustrations that you have created for the Stanley books are deliciously funny. Where did your inspiration for the art come from?
Bill: My inspiration for my art always comes first and foremost from Linda's wonderful text. When it came to creating the characters for the Stanley books, I wanted to do something that matched the energy and humour of Linda's writing. Even though Stanley, in so many ways, is a very real dog, to have worked in a more realistic style of artwork would have robbed the story of its humour intsead of building upon it. So I just think about dogs and how they do things, and then push it over the edge.

Marya: How do you create the illustrations?
Bill: My illustrative technique uses acrylics on gessoed paper. Gesso is a medium that allows me to create a great deal of texture on the page, which can be played up for things like dog fur, or grass, or seascapes.
I work from dark to light, finishing with a lot of dry brush and washes, allowing the initial line to continue to inform the artwork.

Marya: Do you talk to Linda much about the artwork that you create for her books?
Bill: Our processes are generally quite separate. Fortunately, we share a common view of our world and what we find funny, so that goes a long way to helping pair the written and visual story and make it all work as a single entity. Linda is also an extremely visual writer, always giving me lots of material embedded in the text itself to work with and at times building in parts of the story that are intended to be told in the artwork alone. On those occasions notes included with the manuscript give me the heads up.

Marya: Did you use real dogs as models for Stanley and his canine friends?
Bill: As models, no. As inspiration, yes. I live in a small village where many of my friends have a dog (or dogs!) and when we get together, the dogs usually get together as well and have their own little party.

Marya: In the Stanley books, you beautifully capture the essence of dogginess. How did you do this? Do you have dogs in your life?
Bill: No, at least not in my own life. As I say, more in avuncular sense, where many of my friends have dogs, and I have lots of opportunities to watch them sleeping, at play, etc. Our cat, Merlin, is quite dog-like, and is probably my primary Stanley prototype, barrel-chested, small-bummed and good-natured. But mostly, as in any good story-telling, I have to think like a dog and the pictures usually come from some place inside there.

Marya: Congratulations on winning the California Young Reader’s Award for Stanley’s Wild Ride! How do you feel about the success of the Stanley books?
Bill: Awed. Humbled. Puffed at times. Very pleased.
Linda: Surprised. Delighted. I have no objectivity about Stanley, and I always get a happy little jolt when people express strongly affectionate feelings about him.

Marya: Are there plans for any more Stanley adventures?
Bill: I believe so. A couple maybe. Right, Linda? :o)
Linda: Yes. I'm not done with Stanley. I hope Bill isn't, either.

Thank you Bill and Linda for such wonderful interviews. Do visit Linda on her website.