Scott Teplin, Author, Mac Barnett, Author, Eli Horowitz, Author McSweeney's 19.95 (30p) ISBN 978-1-934781-71-5
Part The Westing Game, part Masquerade, this board book mystery lures readers in with its pentagonal shape, dry humor, and pages of intricate details. But the chief draw is the promise of—very real—buried treasure, with the clues to its locations...
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Mac Barnett and Jory John, illus. by Kevin Cornell. Abrams/Amulet, $13.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4197-1491-7
Two rival pranksters headline this boisterous series opener set in Yawnee Valley, “the cow capital of the United States, this side of the Mississippi, excluding a couple of towns that cheat.” Barnett (the Brixton Brothers series) and John (All My...
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Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, illus. by Matthew Myers. Simon & Schuster, $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4424-4673-1
Scieszka and Barnett wonder what would happen if the young recipient of a dorky picture book, Birthday Bunny, decided to... improve its treacly text and soppy pictures, and make himself the hero to boot. Scrawling in pencil over the original story...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. Candlewick, $15.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7636-9603-0
In the first book of a planned trilogy from the team behind two Caldecott Honor winners (Extra Yarn and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole), Triangle plots some serious mischief. He’s a charcoal-colored triangle with sticklike legs and Klassen’s famous shifty-e
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-195338-5
Understated illustrations and prose seamlessly construct an enchanting and mysterious tale about a girl named Annabelle, who lives in a world “where everywhere you looked was either the white of snow or the black of soot from chimneys.” After...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. Candlewick, $15.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7636-9607-8
Square, who squabbled with Triangle in the first volume of Barnett and Klassen’s Shape trilogy, suffers from a case of imposter syndrome in this second picture book offering. Circle sees Square pushing stone blocks one after the other to the top of...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. Candlewick, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7636-6229-5
Barnett’s comic voice is at its driest as he recounts that quintessential American childhood activity—the digging of the giant hole. His deadpan prose mimics the declarative sentences of early readers: “On Monday Sam and Dave dug a hole. ‘When...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7636-7754-1
Barnett’s collaborations with Klassen often draw humor from knowledge withheld. Readers giggled because they knew Triangle was up to no good, and they saw the giant diamond that Sam and Dave missed while digging. In this big-hearted, gleeful caper,...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Mike Lowery. Orchard, $12.99 (160p) ISBN 978-1-338-14359-1
“One minute you are just a kid. The next minute you are a secret agent for the Queen of England,” deadpans a boy named Mac, who narrates Barnett’s (The Terrible Two) riotous series debut as an adult recalling a 1980s childhood caper, insisting that...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Christian Robinson. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-1513-7
Barnett and Robinson (Leo: A Ghost Story) reteam for this interactive picture book, which asks questions that spur contemplation and wonder. Alongside an initial question—“How many animals can you see in this picture?”—the first pages show a green...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Greg Pizzoli. Viking, $9.99 (80p) ISBN 978-0-593-11379-0
In this promising beginning-reader series opener, Barnett and Pizzoli introduce a mischievous rabbit named Jack, a lady named “the Lady,” and a dog named Rex. In the first of three stories, Jack “comes down from his tree to make a friend,” then...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Greg Pizzoli. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-235483-9
For kids, similes are a gateway to the world of figurative language, but they’re also ripe for absurdist comedy, as Barnett (Triangle) and Pizzoli (Good Night Owl) prove. “I’m happy like a monster./ I’m lucky like a window./ I’m smiling like a tuna./
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Kevin Cornell. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4231-6065-6
Carrying out the titular imperative proves tough, given that, on every spread, monkeys are nowhere to be seen. Luckily, the mounting number of predators that have scared them off can be enumerated, even if their appearances don’t always jive with...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Christian Robinson. Chronicle, $16.99 (52p) ISBN 978-1-4521-3156-6
As a ghost, Leo may be invisible and intangible, but he can still feel bruised. When a family moves into the empty home he occupies, they aren’t exactly pleased to see the floating tray of tea and toast he has prepared for them. “This house is...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Matt Myers. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4231-8516-1
Barnett focuses his inimitable blend of energy and fiendish imagination on children’s fascination with the rules. The scene is a vacation cabin with a posted set of regulations. Keep the rug clean, scrub the bathtub, feed the wood box, and “Never—eve
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Kate Berube. Candlewick, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-0395-0
Employing sweet humor and sensory detail, Barnett (What Is Love?) and Berube (Second Banana) convey the unexpected beauty of a school performance. Sometimes, “if we’re good,” Friday Assembly ends with a student presenting a talent—“It’s called ‘Shari
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Elise Parsley. Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-235484-6
“What’s the magic word?” It’s a cloying reminder about good manners from the powers that be. One night, Barnett’s bratty hero, Paxton C. Heymeyer, makes an important discovery: by saying “alakazoomba” instead of “please,” he can bypass the middleman
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Carson Ellis. Chronicle, $17.99 (44p) ISBN 978-1-4521-7640-6
“What is love?” a tan-skinned boy in a blue shirt asks his grandmother as she cuts flowers in front of their cottage. “I can’t answer that,” she says; “If you go out into the world, you might find an answer.” As he subsequently inquires, he finds...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Shawn Harris. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-0396-7
Barnett (Paolo, Emperor of Rome) and Harris (Everyone’s Awake) open with an empty sheet of heavily textured white paper. “There is a polar bear in the snow,” the text reads, and a page turn reveals a few delicate charcoal marks: the bear’s black...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Shawn Harris. HarperCollins/Tegen, $15.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-308408-7
Adapting the “Live Cartoon” series that shares this title’s name, Barnett (John’s Turn) and Harris (Have You Ever Seen a Flower?) replace innovative papercraft and DIY camerawork with an assured graphic novel collaboration. When rats from another...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. Orchard, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-338-67384-5
It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate pair of picture book rascals to remix this famous fairy tale, a series-starting retelling, than collaborators Barnett and Klassen (The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse). Working in his customary earthen tones,...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. Candlewick, $15.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7636-9608-5
Square and Triangle have had their turns. Now, in the final volume of Barnett and Klassen’s shapes trilogy, Circle’s the hero. She suggests a game of hide-and-seek and warns Square and Triangle not to hide behind her waterfall, a bright new addition
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. Candlewick, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-2376-7
The frequent collaborators take the simple question of the title and dive right in: “How does he do it? How does it work?” Klassen imagines a pale-skinned Santa on a rooftop making adjustments: he cinches his belt at the waist while a reindeer holds
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Dan Santat. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4231-4912-5
The studious, pigtailed girl whose science project got out of hand in Oh No! hasn’t quite learned her lesson. When she misses one question on her history test (she incorrectly answers that Belgium is the location of the oldest prehistoric cave...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Dan Santat, Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4231-2312-5
Santat and Barnett collaborate seamlessly on this slapstick adventure about a pigtailed, bespectacled science fair entrant trying unsuccessfully to control her prize-winning robot. "I probably shouldn't have given it a superclaw, or a laser eye, or...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Claire Keane. Abrams, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4197-4109-8
Paolo the dachshund is trapped in a hair salon on Rome’s Via Torino, unable to see for himself the wonders he suspects lie beyond its glass door. But one lucky day, the door is left open, and what he finds is even better than he had dreamed. The...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Marla Frazee. Beach Lane, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5344-1154-8
An unassuming performer gets a stupendous second chance in a lighter-than-air story from Barnett (John’s Turn) and Frazee (the Farmer books). Circus performer the Great Zapfino doesn’t look as impressive as the name suggests. The paper-white high...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Adam Rex. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4231-5220-0
Barnett and Rex concoct another self-referential story, this one about the process of bookmaking. As in Chloe and the Lion, Barnett and Rex star as writer and illustrator. With the help of an editor (“she is like a teacher, only she works in a...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Kevin Cornell. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4231-1671-4
King Duncan “spent every Royal Day admiring his Royal Reflection, and not doing much else. Which is why his kingdom was such a Royal Mess.” When his subjects revolt, King Duncan’s solution—yet another giant billboard of his royal visage, this one...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Patrick McDonnell. Roaring Brook, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-59643-966-5
An impassive, red-nosed skunk—another inimitable McDonnell (A Perfectly Messed-Up Story) critter—appears on a man's doorstep. Why is it there? What does it want? And why does it keep following him no matter where he goes—even into the opera house...
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Mac Barnett, Author, Adam Rex, Illustrator , illus. by Adam Rex. S&S $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-5566-5
A funny, absurdist take on guessing game books from the team behind Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem
, these silly rhymes avoid easy answers (a robot who hatches from an egg and cries “Cheep Cheep!” on the first page hints at...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Adam Rex. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4231-1334-8
Take a vaudeville stage with some flimsy painted scenery, two clay figures that represent Barnett and Rex (Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem), a brash and bespectacled heroine named Chloe (hand-drawn), a lion (also drawn), and some walk-on...
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Mac Barnett, Author, Adam Rex, Illustrator , illus. by Adam Rex. Disney-Hyperion $16.99 (34p) ISBN 978-0-7868-4958-1
When his parents threaten to teach him responsibility by giving him a whale, Billy Twitters isn’t worried: “It’s not like you can just have one delivered to your house overnight.” But he’s wrong. Rex’s (Frankenstei
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Jen Corace. Chronicle, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4521-1023-3
Barnett (Extra Yarn) and Corace (I Hatched!) prove delightful collaborators as they inject new fizz into an old parlor game. On a telephone wire above a street lined with houses, a maternal-looking pigeon turns to a cardinal holding a baseball bat. “
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Chris Van Dusen. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-6317-9
As presidential legend has it, the generously proportioned William Howard Taft once became lodged in his tub. In this pictorial re-enactment, Barnett (Extra Yarn) and Van Dusen (King Hugo's Huge Ego) imagine the undignified predicament: " ‘Blast!'...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Renata Liwska. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-228621-5
Barnett (The Magic Word) can be laugh-out-loud funny, but this sweet-tempered ode to friendship tips its hat to gentler classics like A Hole Is to Dig. “Hurry up! We have places to be,” Barnett writes, as the two fuzzy bears race down a road on a...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Brian Biggs. Roaring Brook, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59643-967-2
It’s late, and no one is being very neighborly in the apartment building at the center of this unruly story. A well-matched Barnett (The Magic Word) and Biggs (Tinyville Town Gets to Work!) start on the first floor, where a kid is awakened by noise...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Isabelle Arsenault. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7636-9680-1
Barnett (The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown) offers a comic look at that famous childhood bedtime-delaying tactic, the difficult question. Mixed-media drawings by Arsenault (Albert’s Quiet Quest) show a child all tucked in, the light from
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Sarah Jacoby. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-06-239344-9
Margaret Wise Brown lived a dashing, colorful life and wrote more than 100 children’s books before her untimely death at 42. In an era when fairy tales ruled, the here-and-now realism of titles such as Goodnight Moon was harshly judged. Barnett’s...
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Mac Barnett, illus. by Sydney Smith. Viking, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-52497-8
This warmhearted holiday interlude opens as a polar bear passing the North Pole finds that Santa spends Christmas Day just like any other: making toys. (He does sleep “an extra half hour,” three elves reveal.) The bear’s stern reply—“It’s Christmas”—
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