Again!

by Emily Gravett, Emily Gravett (Illustrator)

Overview

A little dragon and his favorite book make for a combustible combination in this clever picture book with a surprise ending.

It’s nearly Cedric the dragon’s bedtime, and for Cedric, bedtime means storytime! When his mother reads him his favorite book, he likes the story so much that he wants to hear it again…and again…and again!

Cedric’s mom understands that the best stories are ripe for repetition, and she tries very hard to be patient. But sometimes dragons will be dragons—which is why this bedtime tale ends with an incendiary surprise!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442452312
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	04/16/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,054,812
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	AD820L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Emily Gravett is the author and illustrator of many children’s books, including Matilda’s Cat, Again!, Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears (winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal), Meerkat Mail, Tidy, and Old Hat. Her first book, Wolves, was the winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Award for Illustration. Her second book, Orange Pear Apple Bear, was a Quills Award finalist, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and on the shortlist for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Emily lives in Brighton, England, with her partner, their daughter, and the family dog. Visit her at EmilyGravett.com.

Emily Gravett is the author and illustrator of many children’s books, including Matilda’s Cat, Again!, Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears (winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal), Meerkat Mail, Tidy, and Old Hat. Her first book, Wolves, was the winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Award for Illustration. Her second book, Orange Pear Apple Bear, was a Quills Award finalist, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and on the shortlist for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Emily lives in Brighton, England, with her partner, their daughter, and the family dog. Visit her at EmilyGravett.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Gravett takes a slight idea and builds cleverly upon it to offer a fresh take on a familiar scenario."

Booklist

"This is a creative bit of fun to which many a tired parent and enthusiastic child will relate, and the dragon aspect will appeal to many youngsters as well....The boldness of the pictures and brevity of the text will make this a sure-fire winner for group storytimes and patient parents with plenty of energy may find it suitable bedtime fare as well."

BCCB

"Gravett, whose stories often include surprising die cuts and satisfying metafictive elements, takes the I-don’t-want-to-go-to-sleep trope to a new, fiery level...Though it’s hard to think that human child readers will want to sleep after this abrupt yet satisfying ending, it is clear that they will be screaming “AGAIN!

The Horn Book

"Gravett takes a slight idea and builds cleverly upon it to offer a fresh take on a familiar scenario."

Booklist

PreS-Gr 3—Gravett's latest experiment with metafiction imagines the possible trajectory of a child's appeal to hear a bedtime story ad infinitum. Here, the characters are dragons. The mother begins energetically: "Cedric the dragon's a bright angry red./He's never,/His whole life,/(Not once) been to bed." This nocturnal picture-book beast terrorizes princesses and trolls. In the second reading, a sleepy mom takes a more judgmental tone, and the hero is hospitable. By the fourth version, she and the storybook characters are snoring; "z's" fall from the printed page. Meanwhile, the listening Cedric has undergone a color and personality transformation. White and placid on the endpapers and green during the beginning (in contrast to his angry, red textual counterpart), he and his dopplegänger gradually reverse colors. While the titular refrain appears throughout (including on two subtly different title pages), the repeated word is part of a full-blown temper tantrum at the conclusion. The book is shaken and turned upside down, causing the composition to tumble to the edge. Steaming mad, the protagonist burns a hole in the page (and the back cover) through which the characters escape. Gravett differentiates the story lines of her oil-based pencil and watercolor compositions by using a brighter palette and more detailed features against the white background of her main narrative and deeper shades and parchment-colored pages in the book Cedric loves. Youngsters will delight in deciphering the visual narrative in their own multiple readings and will relate to the range of emotions displayed by their scaly stand-in.—Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

School Library Journal

Gravett, that master of the metafictive die cut, returns for a savvy bedtime satire. It's time for this little green dragon's bedtime story. Clutching a blankie, it snuggles up to its parent dragon for the story of fierce Cedric the red dragon, who wreaks havoc every night. "Again?" pleads the little dragon, holding up the red, clothbound storybook (readers who remove the paper jacket will see that it's exactly the book that they are holding). The patient parent reads it again, with a little editorial revision: "At nighttime when Cedric SHOULD be asleep…." And again: "Cedric the dragon's a big sleepyhead. / He's decided it's time / HE WAS REALLY IN BED." With each iteration, the storybook's illustration changes, and Cedric transforms from a fire-breathing terror to a princess-kissing softie. At the fourth, parent dragon conks out, the ZZZs from its snoring mingling with the few letters on the storybook's page. Enraged, the little green dragon begins to turn red, shouting, "AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!" Fully red after several futile repetitions, it puts some firepower behind its final "AGAIN," burning a hole through the last page and back cover. The storybook characters escape, luckily (and, though unseen, so does parent dragon, human parents will no doubt note). This little bit of bedtime foolery feels a little incomplete, but it should strike a chord—and it's far wittier than the similarly themed Go the Fuck to Sleep. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews