Sparky!

by Jenny Offill, Chris Appelhans (Illustrator)

Overview

The ingenious author of 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore and a brilliant illustrator and production designer of the Coraline movie have created a hilarious, touching picture book perfect for young animal lovers. Like the Caldecott Medal-winning Officer Buckle and Gloria, Sparky stars a pet who has more to offer than meets the eye. When our narrator orders a sloth through the mail, the creature that arrives isn't good at tricks or hide-and-seek . . . or much of anything. Still, there's something about Sparky that is irresistible.

Winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375870231
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	03/11/2014
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD520L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jenny Offill is the author of 17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore, a Parenting Magazine Best Book of the Year and a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year, and 11 Experiments That Failed, also a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year, which Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, called “the most joyful and clever whimsy.” Learn more at jennyoffill.com.

Chris Appelhans was selected as the Children’s Choice Illustrator of the Year at the Children’s Choice Book Awards for Sparky!, his first picture book. The book received two starred reviews, including one from Booklist declaring, “Appelhans is a revelation.” Chris has also worked on several films, as an illustrator and a production designer for Coraline, an environment designer for Fantastic Mr. Fox, and a visual development artist for The Princess and the Frog.

Editorial Reviews

Perhaps not everyone will see the humor in naming a sloth Sparky, but this distinctively illustrated story will amuse those who do.

The New York Times Book Review - Sarah Harrison Smith

12/16/2013
Depending on one’s feelings about exotic pets, Offill’s (17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore) sloth story is either hilariously hip or burdened with pathos. At the outset, a mother tells her daughter, “You can have any pet you want as long as it doesn’t need to be walked or bathed or fed.” Within these parameters, the girl acquires a sloth, dubbed Sparky. She tries to coax her low-maintenance pet to do tricks, but complains, “Sometimes he took so long to fetch that I went inside and had dinner while I waited.” Appelhans, an animation illustrator, debuts with watercolors in driftwood brown, teal, and red; readers will detect Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen’s influence in the palette and in Sparky’s repetitive poses, dangling his arms from a branch or slouching upright. Offill and Appelhans’s glum story recalls the absurdism of J. Otto Seibold’s recent Lost Sloth. By book’s end, both girl and sloth are just about as lonely and miserable as ever, but at least they’re lonely together. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Sally Wofford-Girand, Union Literary. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2014-01-04
Quietly dry humor marks this story about a most unusual pet. An unassuming girl looks straight out at readers and explains her desire for a pet. She's not fussy, but she can't make it happen: "My mother said no to the bird. / No to the bunny. / No, no, no to the trained seal." Finally her mother consents—sort of: She agrees to any pet "as long as it doesn't need to be walked or bathed or fed." After some library research, "[m]y sloth arrived by Express Mail." Here it gets really funny. The girl waits two days, standing in moonlight and rain next to Sparky's backyard tree, before he even awakens. She teaches him games: "We played King of the Mountain / and I won. // We played Hide-and-Seek / and I won." Sparky never moves a muscle. Sitting on the grass, he's stock-still; on his tree branch, he lies motionless (atop the branch, inexplicably but adorably, not hanging down in sloth fashion). Even his expression's comically immobile. Training sessions and a performance proceed—um—at Sparky's pace, but a beautiful closing illustration of girl and sloth together on his branch shows how close they've grown. Appelhans uses blue and pinky-brown watercolors and pencil on creamy background to create understated humor and affection with a light touch. A serene, funny addition to the new-pet genre. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews