"Shadows and dusty hues lend Kelley's chalky geometric artwork an ominous quality that echoes the tone of endangerment summoned by Winter." - Publishers Weekly"The uptick in picture books about books being banned this year has been notable. Not that there have been all THAT many, but I've noted more than a few. There was The Great Banned Books Bake Sale by Aya Khalil, illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan and This Book Is Banned by Raj Haldar, illustrated by Julia Patton. Those were interesting but pretty straightforward picture books overall. This latest from Winter & Kelley is a bit different. I found it particularly interesting since this is definitely the first time Winter has ever worked with the publisher known as The Creative Company. Kelley, for his part, is a very specific kind of illustrator, and here he's pulling out his full inner-European for the art.

The whole trick to this book is that as you read it more and more of its words are blacked out. Eventually so many blacked out blocks of text fill the page that you begin to realize that if you read the words that have not been blacked, you start to find an entirely new story there. But what about the art? Everyone loves a cool concept, but how the heck do you illustrate it? Never fear. Kelley's art opts for an interesting combination of realistic and surreal. I liken them to WPA paintings of the Depression Era, except with a bit of a dada twist. You get a hint of that from the cover certainly. It's making a gigantic point rather than a coherent story, but considering the truly peculiar way in which it's doling out its material, you kind of respect it. Definitely a title for older child readers, that's for sure.

Definitely unconventional." -Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production, 31 Days, 31 Lists: 2023 Unconventional Children's Books, 12/17/20232024 Horace Mann Upstander Award Winner.