Available:*
Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607003096313 | Picture Books | DIESEN | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Bound With These Titles
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Summary
Summary
It's picture day, and the boy at the center of this charming picture book wants to make sure his picture is perfect . It seems as though everything's going wrong for him--he has bedhead, a stained shirt, and a big scowl on his face. But when he goes up for his picture, he thinks about his terrible appearance, and he smiles--because he secretly wants his picture to be the worst ever taken! But just as he smiles, the photo is snapped and his plan is ruined--the photo looks great.
Perfectly paired with the larger-than-life silliness of Dan Santat's illustrations, this is sure to be a schoolroom favorite. It will come bound with a picture frame in the back so readers can add their own class photos to the book.
Praise for Picture Day Perfection
"A clever tale about a kid who wants this year to be his showcase for the perfect school picture."
-- Kirkus Reviews
"Colorful yearbook-style endpapers are fun to pore over and even include a place to insert one's own picture, though this feature will be compromised by most library processing. This slapstick picture book will appeal most to school-age kids who will get the jokes peppered throughout the text and the visuals."
-- School Library Journal
" The narrator's malleable features are in a perpetual state of contortion as he plans his photo disaster and reacts to the series of unfortunate events that conspire to bring him glory. Clever bits such as the scribbled emoticons on his September calendar page, and the sepia- and gray-toned faces that play in his imagination add to the fun."
-- The Bulletin of The Center for Children's Books
Author Notes
Deborah Diesen is the author of the Pout-Pout Fish book series, illustrated by Dan Hanna. The series includes picture book stories and some very short MINI-adventure books. Works as a financial manager for a nonprofit along with being an author.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-Bold, exaggerated images done in Adobe Photoshop set the comedic stage for this story of picture-day preparation, which for the narrator began months in advance. All the preplanning culminates at the start of the book on picture-day morning with severe bed head, a favorite shirt rescued (stained and smelly) from the bottom of the hamper, and a sticky maple-syrup incident. Things continue on in this vein throughout the school day. Readers will wonder about the narrator's choices considering his professed devotion to taking the perfect picture. Carefully worded text gives away nothing, but as the photographer prepares his camera the real plan for the day comes clearly into focus. The child's idea of the perfect picture may look quite different from what his mother had in mind, and it is still not easy to orchestrate the outcome of a photograph. Colorful yearbook-style endpapers are fun to pore over and even include a place to insert one's own picture, though this feature will be compromised by most library processing. This slapstick picture book will appeal most to school-age kids who will get the jokes peppered throughout the text and the visuals.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Things could not be going more wrong for the narrator on school picture day, which starts with "the worst case of bedhead ever" and a maple syrup accident, then culminates in some serious paint spattering during art class. What a disaster on the very day one is being captured for posterity-or is it? What if the boy is actually running a long con, and his idea of perfection is in fact a photo that captures "my perfectly tangled hair, my perfectly rumpled shirt, my perfectly sticky face, my perfectly composed scowl"? Diesen (The Pout-Pout Fish) and Santat (The Three Ninja Pigs) are good-natured storytellers, and Santat's expertise in exaggeration is just what the premise ordered (as the camera prepares to flash, the boy becomes a dead ringer for the Grinch). While the narrator's personality never quite gels-either as sad sack or messy mastermind-Diesen and Santat unveil the narrator's secret at just the right moment, before unloading another twist that should trigger photo-worthy grins. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. Illustrator's agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.