As Cool as It Gets (The Cool Bean Presents)

by Jory John, Pete Oswald (Illustrator)

Overview

Based on the New York Times bestselling picture book sensation The Cool Bean, Jory John and Pete Oswald present: As Cool as It Gets! Includes two sticker sheets, perfect for decorating your own holiday cards and gifts.

When the Cool Bean picks the name of the coolest of the cool beans, Beanadette, out of a hat for the annual gift exchange, he’s not feeling very merry or festive—he’s feeling pressure! Beanadette is definitely expecting the coolest present of all. Will the Cool Bean find the perfect gift in time for the party?

Find out in this hilarious, charming, and cozy continuation of Jory John and Pete Oswald’s bestselling Food Group series.

Check out Jory John and Pete Oswald’s funny, bestselling books for kids 4-8 and anyone who wants a laugh:

• The Bad Seed
• The Good Egg
• The Cool Bean
• The Couch Potato
• The Good Egg Presents: The Great Eggscape!
• The Bad Seed Presents: The Good, the Bad, the Spooky!
• The Cool Bean Presents: As Cool as It Gets
• That’s What Dinosaurs Do

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063045422
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/13/2022
Series:	Food Group Series
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	51,759
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jory John is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time E. B. White Read Aloud Honor recipient. Jory’s work includes the award-winning Goodnight Already! series; the bestselling Food Group series, including The Bad Seed, The Good Egg, and more; the national bestseller All My Friends Are Dead; and many more popular picture books. You can visit him online at www.joryjohn.com.

Pete Oswald is an LA-based artist, kid lit author/illustrator, and production designer. Pete is the illustrator of the Food Group series by Jory John and the Cranky series by Phuc Tran as well as many other picture books. When Pete is not working on books, he is helping to uplift many of the most successful animated franchises as a character designer, concept artist, and production designer. Pete lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and two sons.

Editorial Reviews

A solid message for young DIYers, particularly those with more time than bean-bucks. — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

08/26/2022

PreS-Gr 3—A wonderfully written and illustrated book about Cool Bean, who is nervous about the upcoming holiday party. Every year at the party, the beans exchange gifts. This year, Cool doesn't know what to get the bean he selected; he doesn't have the money to buy her something, and he is unsuccessful in finding her a gift. So Cool paints her a picture. He is nervous that he will be laughed at for making his gift and not buying it. But Cool is surprised when everyone loves the gift he made, and he even gets a gift that someone made for him. This wonderful story shows the anxieties and emotions kids and adults can face during the holidays, especially when giving gifts. John does an excellent job describing all the emotions that the beans go through, and Oswald is just as amazing showing the emotions of the bean characters. The beautiful and descriptive pictures are detailed but not super complicated in nature, fitting for the age of children reading this book. VERDICT A fun book for fans of the Cool Bean series.—Dorinda Brown

School Library Journal

2022-08-17
The pressure of picking a proper gift to exchange at a party makes the holiday season anything but a fava-rite time for the leguminous star of The Cool Bean (2019).

Having picked ultra-cool Beanadette J.’s name out of the basket but lacking the bean-bucks to buy anything, the frustrated frijole turns creative, using pens and paints to depict the intended recipient surrounded by tigers and rainbows. Seeing the multicolored guests at the party getting electronics and other expensive fancies only cranks up the anticipated humiliation—but Beanadette loves the picture, and so does everyone else. “I’d created something unique and original. I’d given it away. And it had made somebody happy.” If that summation isn’t explicit enough for some readers, John’s beany bestower leaves the party with a brand-new, hand-knit scarf of their own (“truly a cool—and also warm—gift, indeed”) and then ends by boiling the message down to a mushy meme: “When in doubt, just make something.” However easy it may be to see as naïve (or at best aspirational) the notion that beans, human or otherwise, are sure to value hand-made gifts over manufactured ones, young children or anyone with no bean-bucks to spend might take it to heart. No specific holidays are identified aside from glimpses of snow, garland, and carolers in the illustrations of anthropomorphized, cartoonish beans. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A solid message for young DIYers, particularly those with more time than bean-bucks. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews