Abner & Ian Get Right-Side Up

by Dave Eggers, Laura Park (Illustrator)

Overview

Abner and Ian are stuck sideways in this clever picture book created by a bestselling, acclaimed author and cartoonist—and perfect for fans of Elephant & Piggie and Press Here.

Abner and Ian are stuck sideways on the pages of their debut picture book. They can't start the story like this! Ian is trying to be brave, despite his dizziness and fear of heights. But don't worry, because Abner has a plan: Readers will shake and turn the book until they get right side up! Sounds easy, right? Think again, because the real solution may be the opposite of what you'd expect.

With the odd couple wit of Elephant & Piggie, the interactive appeal of Press Here, and a timeless charm all their own, Abner & Ian offer readers of all ages eighty pages of fast-paced fun with a surprising and rewarding twist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316485869
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Pages:	80
Sales rank:	940,305
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Dave Eggers is the award-winning and bestselling author of many books, including the National Book Award finalist A Hologram for the King, as well as books for younger readers including What Can a Citizen Do?, Her Right Foot, This Bridge Will Not Be Gray, and The Lifters. He is the founder of the independent publishing company McSweeney's and the nonprofit organization ScholarMatch, in addition to cofounding The International Congress of Youth Voices and 826 Valencia, which has inspired similar organizations worldwide. Eggers lives in Northern California.

Laura Park is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her work has appeared in the Best American Comics, The Anthology of Graphic Fiction, The Paris Review, and on Saveur.com. Park is also the illustrator for two middle-grade kids' book series written by James Patterson, Middle School and I Funny. She is a member of the jam comics collective Trubble Club. Park currently lives in Lanas, France.

Editorial Reviews

02/18/2019

In the style of Hervé Tullet–like interactive volumes, Eggers (What Can a Citizen Do?) starts with two characters who defy gravity, sticking out from the left and right sides of a spread as if mounted there. “We’re supposed to be down there,” grumbles Abner the duck. Ian the groundhog worries. “Did you have any ideas? Usually you have such good ideas.” Abner calls for help (“Hey, kid! We need a hand”) and asks the reader to shake the book: “Trust me. This is how it’s done.” Oops! Now Abner and Ian are hanging from the top of the page like bats. Requests for more shaking trap the two in the book’s gutter, then their bottom and top halves part ways. Despite its single-note gimmick and some insider humor (“I have a brie allergy. And recurrent eczema,” Ian tells Abner), the book is likely to please. Tasked with illustrating this all-dialogue tale, the gifted Park (the I Funny series) creates two instantly endearing characters whose expressions, as the two ponder, hold forth, and defend their positions from their idiotic perches, are funny and sympathetic. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

An Amazon Best Book of the Month for Ages 3-5, May 2019


*"This comedic dilemma...will have children shouting at every shake of the book. Fans of Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie or Melanie Watts' Scaredy Squirrel books will find the collaboration of Eggers and Park's work to be equally appealing. Shaking to cause a change makes it interactive in the same manner as Tullet's Press Here (Chronicle 2011) or Matheson's Tap the Magic Tree (Greenwillow Books 2016).—School Library Connection

* "Appealing."
—School Library Connection, starred review

"A very funny read-aloud."—Kirkus Reviews

"Funny and sympathetic."—Publishers Weekly

"A mind changer for anyone who ever thought that reading was a sedate occupation.... Irresistible."—Booklist

"[An] amusing, interactive story."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

05/01/2019

PreS-Gr 1–In this silly interactive book, a duck and a prairie dog find themselves sideways on the page instead of on the ground. They start up a dialogue about their predicament and ask readers for a helping hand. After requesting assistance, they awkwardly draw things out to build up anticipation, but from there on, the pacing, silliness, and intensity quickly ramps up, for with each shake of the page, their positioning only gets wackier. Upside down, popping out of the seam, half on one page and half on the other, no matter how hard readers work, they can't seem to right themselves. Finally they decide to try something different. For the most part, Eggers's writing takes center stage, and while the text on individual pages is usually brief, it goes on for 80 pages, which is quite a bit longer than the average picture book. Because of the nature of the plot, Park's illustrations don't change much. However, the old-fashioned designs and muted colors pair well with the candid tone; it is this contrast between the aesthetics and the premise that causes so much amusement. Overall, the creators have come up with a child-friendly way to talk about disruption and calm. VERDICT Even though this picture book is quite lengthy compared to others like it, the amusing, interactive story makes it worth the buy.—Rachel Forbes, Oakville Public Library, Ont.

School Library Journal

2019-02-06

Take reading for a spin (literally) with the newest metafictive comedy duo, Abner and Ian.

Their oddball routine begins with Abner, a duck, and Ian, a prairie dog, standing sideways on the edges of the pages—parallel rather than perpendicular to the background. Abner suggests breaking the fourth wall to ask readers (referred to in the singular as "the kid") to help by shaking the book and turning the pages. Ian expresses some doubt about the idea. But, when Abner notes that they've "seen it work before" (a hilarious moment of meta-metafiction), the pals go forward with the plan. A countdown cue instructs readers to do as they're told. Subsequent page turns find Abner and Ian in various different post-shake orientations (upside down, in the gutter, all mixed up, etc.). Will they ever make it to where they're supposed to be so they can start the story? At 80 pages, the joke carries on a bit too long, but the witty back and forth between the two characters makes for a quick pace. Park's art matches a limited palette of earth tones with bright, bold backgrounds. Her cartoon characters are richly expressive, nicely varied within the context of the heavy compositional repetition required to fuel the comedy. Amusingly, Abner's scarf demonstrates at all times that it is subject to the law of gravity, even if the characters are not. Given the characters' broad vocabularies, it's a shame they resort to variations of "crazy" to describe how they want the book to be shaken.

A very funny read-aloud done (mostly) right-side up. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews