TWELVE TERRIBLE THINGS

“I'm warning you. If you turn the page, you are going to see some terrible things.” No exaggeration there. Twelve childhood fears, anxieties and worries are rendered in hugely realistic two-page spreads. The book begins with readers looking down at a delicious double-scoop of ice cream lying heartbreakingly on the ground; they’ll experience each horrible happening firsthand, from the dizzying view from the edge of a diving board to a friend’s smelly sock thrust in their faces. The 12 everyday bad things are delightfully exaggerated: When Grandma reaches for “those cheeks,” she looks positively predatory. After the 12th terrible thing occurs, readers find themselves in an ice-cream store reaching for a double-scoop cone, and the cycle begins again. This is essentially Gary Greenberg’s Pop-Up Book of Phobias (1999) but with a wonderful sense of how kids sometimes feel the world treats them. Expect this book to be a hit with not just younger children but their older teenage siblings as well. Turns the terrible into the terrific. (Picture book. 5-9)