EXCEPT IF
Author:
Illustrator:
ISBN: 978-1416995449
Publisher: Atheneum/Simon and Schuster
Copyright Date: 2011
Rights Retained: Dramatic Motion Picture, Television/Radio, Merchandising/Commercial, Rights Retained
Audience: Children
Format: Fiction
Price: $12.99
Pages: 40
Description
If you haven’t seen except if yet, know that it’s been described as no less than a “short, sweet, philosophical speculation” (Publishers Weekly), an “existential” and “deceptively simple yet delightful tale” (Kirkus), and “contrarian” fun (Booklist). Readers’ expectations continue to be overturned with successive page turns—and the repeated use of “except if”—in this puzzler of a book, less of a story than a “convergence of fanciful possibilities,” as School Library Journal wrote. Adds the PW review, “{e}ven very young readers will find they’ve succeeded in following a rather convoluted piece of reasoning, clause by clause and picture by picture; it’s a book in which the action unfolds in the mind as much as it does on the page.” I don’t want to give it all away either and spoil your experience reading it, if you haven’t already, but let’s just say it ends as it started — with a pale blue egg and maybe, just maybe, a baby bird.
Notes
Feature in Disney Family Fun Magazine; “Our Favorite Things” roundup; circ. 2.1 million
a concept book for ages 2 -6, the first in a 2-book series
Editions Kaleidoscope (French edition), Chile, Norway
http://apatchworkofbooks.blogspot.com/2011/02/picture-book-saturday.html
http://100scopenotes.com/2010/11/08/10-to-note-winter-preview-2010-11/
Some things are predictable … except if … you take another look.
Reviews
“…Pure preschool imagination fuel …”
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/except-if
“… A concept that starts cleverly and then, almost sneakily, warms the heart.”
Booklist
“…a la DUCK! RABBIT!. Very fun, illustrations are perfect.”
Puget Sound Council for Reviewing Children’s Media
http://apatchworkofbooks.blogspot.com/2011/02/picture-book-saturday.html
“Reminiscent of favorites like Mike Lester’s A IS FOR SALAD and George Shannon’s TOMORROW’S ALPHABET, EXCEPT IF is an entertaining, intriguing mental adventure.”
SLJ
SLJ
“In this deceptively simple yet delightful tale … harkening back to Remy Charlip’s classic FORTUNATELY and, more recently, to Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s FIRST THE EGG, Averbeck proves that he, too, grasps the incredible power of the page turn.”
Kirkus
If you haven’t seen Except If yet, know that it’s been described as no less than a “short, sweet, philosophical speculation” (Publishers Weekly), an “existential” and “deceptively simple yet delightful tale” (Kirkus), and “contrarian” fun (Booklist). Readers’ expectations continue to be overturned with successive page turns-and the repeated use of “except if”-in this puzzler of a book, less of a story than a “convergence of fanciful possibilities,” as School Library Journal wrote. Adds the PW review, “{e}ven very young readers will find they’ve succeeded in following a rather convoluted piece of reasoning, clause by clause and picture by picture; it’s a book in which the action unfolds in the mind as much as it does on the page.” I don’t want to give it all away either and spoil your experience reading it, if you haven’t already, but let’s just say it ends as it started – with a pale blue egg and maybe, just maybe, a baby bird.
“Simple, focused, and funny …all the way to the circular end.”
Horn Book “recommended”
“There’s a quiet tenderness to Averbeck’s prose the blends gracefully with the gentle humor.”
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
