This Book Is Not for You!
by Shannon Hale (Author) Tracy Subisak (Illustrator)
From New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor-winning author Shannon Hale comes a zany picture book that pokes fun at overly gendered notions of boy books and girl books and celebrates the pleasure of a good book.
Stanley's thrilled for bookmobile day--until the old man at the window refuses to lend him the story he wants, all because it features a girl. Girl books are only for girls, the book man insists, just like cat books are only for cats and robot books are only for robots. But after a ferocious dinosaur successfully demands a book about ponies, Stanley musters up the courage to ask for the tale he really wants--about a girl adventurer fighting pirates on the open seas--and inspires the people, cats, robots, and goats around him to read stories outside their experiences and enjoy the pleasure of a good book of their choosing.
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Publishers Weekly
This fantastical tongue-in-cheek picture book by Hale (Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn) follows light-skinned, dark-haired Stanley as he attempts to check out a book from the bookmobile “waiting at the crossroads, shiny as a rocket ship.” In place of the “bookmobile lady,” however, an elderly pale-skinned man leans out of the window and discourages Stanley from his selection, The Mysterious Sandwich: “Looks like this book is about a girl. You don’t want this one, do you?” Events take a turn for the surreal when the old man responds to Stanley’s desire for a robot book: “Only robots can read books about robots,” he says as a robot rolls up. While Stanley attempts to find a suitable title, various anthropomorphic animals are depicted making selections, until Stanley and his bespectacled, light brown–skinned friend Valeria decide to trade—and a purple allosaurus in want of a pony book marches up and asserts herself. Subisak (Amah Faraway) brings her characteristic, doodle-reminiscent style to pages that expertly balance white space with dot-eyed characters human and nonhuman alike, rendered in light-hued washes of India ink, Japanese watercolor, pastel, and colored pencil. A gently delivered, persuasive case against the idea that books’ audiences are innately gendered or otherwise limited. Ages 3–7. Illustrator’s agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary.
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Kirkus
JUV005000 - Juvenile Fiction | Boys & Men
JUV014000 - Juvenile Fiction | Girls & Women
