Meaniehead: with audio recording

by Bruce Eric Kaplan, Bruce Eric Kaplan (Illustrator)

Overview

New Yorker cartoonist and bestselling author Bruce Eric Kaplan depicts the catastrophic and humorous consequences of sibling rivalry in this companion to Monsters Eat Whiny Children.

Henry and Eve are two perfectly delightful children—who fight about absolutely everything. (They’re siblings, after all.) Their latest sibling spat is over an action figure. Which means it’s serious.

Before too long their house is destroyed. The park is leveled. The whole neighborhood…gone.

Can anything repair this rift? Or will their bickering be the end of the Grand Canyon? And Texas? And the universe?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442485433
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	06/10/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
Lexile:	AD570L (what's this?)
File size:	30 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Bruce Eric Kaplan, known for his distinctive, off-beat single-panel cartoons, has been a New Yorker cartoonist for more than fifteen years. He is also a television writer and was an executive producer for the acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under, as well as a writer on Seinfeld (funnily enough, one of his most well-known episodes is one where Elaine becomes increasingly frustrated over what she takes to be an utterly nonsensical New Yorker cartoon). He has authored and illustrated seven adult titles including the cult classic The Cat That Changed My Life; the collections I Love You, I Hate You, I’m Hungry; No One You Know; and This Is a Bad Time; and three titles featuring the wonderfully neurotic Brooklyn couple Edmund and Rosemary: Every Person on the Planet, Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell, and Everything Is Going to Be Okay. Bruce is also the author and illustrator of four picture books: Monsters Eat Whiny Children, Cousin Irv from Mars, Meaniehead, and Someone Farted. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Editorial Reviews

06/01/2014
Gr 1–3—Henry and Eve, the expressively drawn protagonists from Monsters Eat Whiny Children (S. & S., 2010), are back for a new adventure. This time, instead of whining, the children are in a "new, terrible phase of fighting with each other all the time." Their battle quickly escalates from the plausible breaking of their mother's favorite lamp to the regrettable action of leveling the Grand Canyon and continues until they end up destroying the whole world and floating alone in space. In the emptiness of space, they decide they are done fighting and drift off hand-in-hand, "Ready for their next adventure." As with Monsters, readers who do not appreciate dark humor will likely find this book strange and off-putting, but this title lacks the tongue-in-cheek charm that makes the previous book appealing and successful. The children are the villains here instead of the bumbling monsters, and their bad behavior has no counterpoint to make them relatable. At the end, they simply decide to stop fighting because they want to, continuing their selfishness. Aside from the extreme escalation of the fight, the story follows a static, predictable course without a satisfying or clever resolution. The heavy line drawings with watercolor washes are emotive and suited to the text, but since the story takes place in a world full of negative emotions, they ultimately make the children seem even more unsympathetic. Most libraries will be comfortable sticking with Henry and Eve's first adventure and passing on this one.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN

School Library Journal

★ 04/14/2014
“There’s nothing sillier than fighting about what belongs to whom, but no kids and even fewer adults know that,” observes Kaplan (Cousin Irv from Mars) sagely in this wonderful book about badly behaved siblings. Try telling that to Henry and Eve, whose scowling, luridly colored, rivalry-induced physiognomy brings to mind that guy from The Scream. Henry gets a jackhammer, Eve gets a bulldozer, and pretty soon nothing is safe—not their favorite toy store, the San Diego Zoo, the Grand Canyon, or planet Earth: “They chased each other onto a plane that went to Hawaii. Shortly thereafter, Henry and Eve caused every volcano there to explode. Which in turn caused the world to explode. So now the world was gone.” All-consuming rage has seldom been so much fun; to experience Kaplan’s pokerfaced narration and mordant, minimalist cartooning working in tandem is to understand what great comic timing is all about. Kids, you’ve been schooled. Extra points for a sibling reconciliation that manages to be farfetched, emotionally true, and the farthest thing from sappy. Ages 4–8. Agent: Erin Malone, William Morris Endeavor. (June)

Publishers Weekly