Please, Open This Book!

Reviews / Votes

As the manic animals from Warning! Do Not Open This Book! (2013) return, now exhorting readers not to close the book. A monkey with a lantern illuminating ink-black pages rejoices: "You opened the book. We're saved!" Illustrating many of the terrible things that can happen when a book is closed, Forsythe produces an alligator in a cast, a toucan with a bandaged beak, and a frightened lemur peeking from a box. A battered banana is proffered as further evidence. Stalling readers from reaching the book's end, the narrator offers to change the story. "We'll write something with a hero and heroine. You'll like it. It will be a good story!" Amusingly, the earth-toned, digitally composed illustrations depict a gorilla hunkered over a typewriter; strewn about are drafts whose only word is "banana." More bribes (that banana, now half-eaten) naturally won't deter readers from turning the pages. The panicky monkey laments: "One more page and... // THIS BOOK WILL BE // ...CLOSED!" This anguished word winds up on the back cover, with small-print instructions: "You can fix this. Flip it over and...." The metafictive silliness will require the suspension of disbelief: if a closed book could hurt its characters, wouldn't a page turn inflict some minor injury? -- Kirkus * August 1, 2015 * InWarning: Do Not Open This Book! Lehrhaupt begged readers not to allow theanimals in that book to escape; now, the animals plead with children to leavethis book open, so they aren't trapped inside. Lehrhaupt's humor is sharperthis time around, even edgy-a toucan and gator wear bandages, suggesting thatshutting a book doesn't just trap characters, it injures them. Set againstblack backgrounds, Forsythe's digital artwork is equally attuned to theslightly sadistic mood. As book's end approaches, he delivers an extremeclose-up of a dewy-eyed monkey making its desperate plea to readers: "We'll begood. Promise." -- Publishers Weekly * September 28, 2015 * Recepient of the 2016 Wanda Gag Read Aloud Book Award