The Book of Mean People Journal - Softcover

Morrison, Toni

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786808950 ISBN 13: 9780786808953

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2002

Synopsis

In a lighthearted but thought-provoking way, this journal acknowledges that children experience the world differently than adults do. An adult might not realize what a child thinks is mean. Children define "mean" differently according to their age and family experiences. It's important for children to have a safe place to express their frustration and confusion about the world. This journal is one tool for building this safety in your family. How do mean people make you feel? What are some mean things people do? What is the meanest thing of all? What are some nice things people could do instead of being mean? Can friends be mean to each other and still be friends? What could you say to someone who does something mean to you? Writing and drawing are healthy emotional outlets. My Book of Mean People Journal encourages children to develop their self-awareness and self-expression. The activities in this book will help children come to terms with their emotions. By using this journal, children become more aware of why people--including themselves-- do mean things.

About this title

Review

Pulitzer Prize-winner Toni Morrison returns with her son Slade for a second kids' book, this one a catalog of the "mean people" in a young rabbit's life. The results, happily, make for much more fun than the Morrison duo's weirdly subtle The Big Box.

"This is a book about mean people," begins our tiny hero, and almost immediately we realize that illustrator Pascal Lemaître is going to give cartoonist Matt Groening a run for his money when it comes to goofily rendered rabbits. Each "mean" person gets playful, exaggerated, kid-perspective treatment from Lemaître, whether we're seeing a towering dad who barely fits onto two pages ("Some mean people are big") or a mother who's using her nearly telescopic arm to force veggies down our hero's throat ("There are people who smile when they are being mean"). The rabbit's "Mean People" book gets assembled page by page, and no one is spared--not grandparents, brothers, teachers, not even a babysitter with an alarm clock five times the size of her head.

The Morrisons maintain some of their Big Box subtlety by begging the question--of both kids and grownups--of why and whether and which of these people are really "mean" at all. (Even young kids will see the difference between making somebody get out of bed in the morning and tearing the wings off a butterfly.) Whatever the lesson, The Book of Mean People ends inevitably, triumphantly--"I will smile anyway!"--with a joyous, naked plunge into a flowery forest. ("How about that!") (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes

About the Author

Pascal Lemaître's illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker,and Time.Pascal has written and illustrated several picture books for children, including Emily the Giraffe.

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786808950
• ISBN 13: 9780786808953
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 64
• Illustrator: LeMaitre Pascal