You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons; The World on One Cartoon a Day

One June 1, 1990, less than a week after graduating from college, Mo Willems embarked on a year-long trip around the world. Traveling only with a notebook, pen and ink, and one change of clothes, he spent the next twelve months backpacking across more than thirty countries. At the end of each day, he drew the one event that stuck out in his mind the most––from the sublime to the ridiculous.Recently annotated by the illustrator and featuring a foreword from best-selling humor writer Dave Barry, The World on One Cartoon a Day is a unique snapshot of an artist’s coming-of-age as he tries to understand the world around him.

Gr. 12 and up. After college, Caldecott Medal winner Willems took a year-long trip around the world with a backpack and a sketchpad. Every day, he drew a picture to capture the highs and lows of his experience. Now, 15 years later, his artwork has been collected and organized into this cartoon roundup, with pictures accompanied by brief explanatory passages. His trademark irony is very much on display, and even in prototypical form his style is quirky and extremely charming. But there's also a sense that readers are watching the world's longest slideshow, with intermittent insight into the curious--for example, how gravel roads in Indonesia are made, why it's important to avoid Canadian customs inspector #1508. In the end, that may limit the book's audience to browsers and older teens and twentysomethings who may be dreaming up crazy adventures of their own. Some (cartoon) nudity. Jesse Karp
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved