Stuck

by Oliver Jeffers

Overview

Delightful chaos ensues when a young boy gets his kite stuck in a tree in this laugh-out-loud new picture book from award-winning, internationally best-selling author-illustrator Oliver Jeffers!

Floyd gets his kite stuck up a tree. He throws up his shoe to shift it, but that gets stuck too. So he throws up his other shoe and that gets stuck, along with… a ladder, a pot of paint, the kitchen sink, an orang-utan and a whale, amongst other things!

Will Floyd ever get his kite back?

A hilarious book with a wonderful surprise ending.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780007263899
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/29/2012
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 12.28(h) x 0.08(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Oliver Jeffers graduated from The University of Ulster in 2001 with First Class honours. His outstanding talent has been recognised by several high-profile awards, including the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize Gold Award. ‘Lost and Found’ animation was broadcast on Channel 4. Oliver lives and works in Brookyln, New York.

Editorial Reviews

It's the "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" device, and it works brilliantly. But…it's not the what of the story that makes it so terrific, but the visual how. Jeffers is the master of the scribble: of a cloud, the leaves of the offending tree, the boy's hair, the orangutan's fur, and the burst of Floyd's frustration floating delicately above his head when things really start sticking. Jeffers gives these scribbles ample room with lots of white space, and his expert variation of scale and color keep each page full of energy.
—The New York Times Book Review

Lisa Brown

* "Jeffers’ light-handed illustrations are hilariously droll . . . The giggle-inducing conclusion leaves some stuff, um, up in the air."—A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2011, starred review — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

* "Yields a childlike aesthetic sure to tickle the funny bones of its target audience–and of the adults who share the story with youngsters."—School Library Journal, starred review — School Library Journal (starred review)

"With deceptive simplicity and sophisticated illustration, this comic look at problem solving will have wide appeal."—Booklist — Booklist

From the Publisher

"With deceptive simplicity and sophisticated illustration, this comic look at problem solving will have wide appeal."--Booklist

Booklist

Everything but the kitchen sink gets tossed up a tree to help Floyd retrieve his kite--oops, there goes the kitchen sink too! Floyd has one approach, and one approach only, to kite recovery: Throw something up to knock the kite down. He flings up a bucket of paint, the milkman, real trucks, a full-size lighthouse and "a curious whale, in the wrong place at the wrong time." Everything sticks. Jeffers' light-handed illustrations are hilariously droll. Some pages symbolize mood with a single color, boy and tree both murky brown with irritation or red with frustration. The text is handwritten in a childish yet legible scrawl, with liberal use of uppercase letters. The comically deadpan narration never overtells, moving straight from "Floyd fetched Mitch" (a cat) to "Cats get stuck in trees all the time, but this was getting ridiculous." Sometimes Floyd verges on solutions, but he always lapses into the familiar pattern: "Floyd fetched a ladder. He was going to sort this out once and for all… / … and up he threw it. / I'm sure you can guess what happened." Finally, Floyd fetches a saw, holds the blade carefully against the tree trunk--"and hurled it up the tree." The giggle-inducing conclusion leaves some stuff, um, up in the air. Floyd's stubbornness and the smorgasbord-filled tree remain funny through repeated readings, offering kids the special glee of knowing more than the protagonist. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews