The Book of Mean People

"This is a book about mean people. Some mean people are big. Some little people are mean." In Toni Morrison's second illustrated book collaboration with her son, Slade, she offers a humorous look at how children experience meanness and anger in our world. The world and its language can be confusing to young people. To them, meanness can have many shapes, sizes, and sounds. " My mother is mean when she says I don't listen. She says, "Do you hear me?" I can't hear her when she is screaming. This wise child knows that meanness can be a whisper or a shout, a smile or a frown. Young readers know about meanness, too, and will feel satisfied by having their perspective championed in The Book of Mean People.

PreSchool-Grade 1-Accompanied by whimsical pen-and-ink cartoon illustrations in the style of William Steig or Shel Silverstein, this book catalogs "mean people" from a child's point of view: "Some mean people are big. Some little people are mean.- My mother is mean. She says I don't listen. She says, `DO YOU HEAR ME?'" The illustrations feature a little bunny with big ears and a worried expression as she reacts to various unkind people in her family, before deciding to smile anyway and go play. The bunny's definition of "mean" includes a baby in diapers pulling the narrator's ears, her grandmother telling her to sit down, and her mother trying to get her to eat her peas-not instances of deliberate or intentional meanness. The book could be used as a springboard to discuss anger and shouting, etc., but it does not give any reassurance that any of these people are ever caring and loving.
Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"This is a book about mean people," opens the mother-son team's second collaboration (after The Big Box). The narrative begins as a series of statements about cruelty, but Lemaitre (Emily the Giraffe) cleverly fashions the declaratives as thoughts belonging to an intelligent bunny narrator with a diminutive canine sidekick. For "Some mean people are big. Some little people are mean," a spread shows a huge bunny towering above the overalls-clad hero; in the next, a diapered bunny ties the narrator's long ears in knots. The book soon turns from general truisms about "mean" people into a lament about the incomprehensible demands of grown-ups. Lemaitre, however, never ceases to see the humor in the situation. "My grandmother tells me to sit down. My grandfather tells me to sit up," appears on a spread depicting the bunny, one ear down, one ear up, looking torn between the two. The next spread ("How can I sit down and sit up at the same time?") portrays the bunny lying wide-eyed, tipped backwards in his chair, while his dog hides behind a table leg. Others scenarios are chilling, as when the bunny's mother screams ("Do you hear me?"), blasting the hero and his puppy clear across the room. "Frowning people scare me when they smile," the rabbit says at the end, surrounded by his family, all grinning evilly; but he has the last word: "I will smile anyway! How about that!" This bittersweet volume takes meanness in stride and advocates kindness as the antidote. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreS. The Morrisons' first picture book, The Big Box (2000), was heavy and messagy about the scariness of adults. This time the authors do a better job of showing a small child's viewpoint, and Lemaitre's cartoon-style bunny characters in ink and cheerful watercolors make the grown-ups look silly as well as ugly and mean. In the first dramatic picture, the stiff, frowning father rabbit looms across a double-page spread, his necktie like a weapon swinging at the child in the lower left-hand corner. Shouting is printed in huge letters across two pages that show the child trying to close his ears to his parents' scary standoff. Then there are grown-ups who smile when they are mean, bullies who whisper, and a teacher, a big brother, and a babysitter who are huge and overbearing. Of course, children's books long ago moved away from idyllic views of childhood innocence and bliss, so this idea isn't new. But small kids will recognize the angry scenarios, and they will enjoy talking about the pictures with adults who listen. Hazel Rochman
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