My Parents Won't Stop Talking!

by Emma Hunsinger, Tillie Walden, Emma Hunsinger (Illustrator), Tillie Walden (Illustrator)

Overview

A child's plans are ruined when her parents have the gall to stop to talk to the neighbors in My Parents Won't Stop Talking!, a laugh-out-loud picture book about patience by Emma Hunsinger and Tillie Walden.

It’s time to go to the park, and Molly can’t wait! It’s going to be awesome and amazing and—

OH NO!

The neighbors have spotted her moms, and now they’re talking. A lot. And everything they say is boring. Minutes feel like hours, hours feel like days, and days feel like eons . . .

Will her parents ever stop talking?!

This is a clever, irreverent take on a universal childhood dilemma, written and illustrated by two stars in the comics world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250871190
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	44 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Texas. She is a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, where she now teaches. She has published three graphic novellas with London-based Avery Hill Publishing and On a Sunbeam and Eisner Award winners Are You Listening? and Spinning with First Second Books. She currently lives in Norwich, Vermont, with her cat, Stan.

Emma Hunsinger is a cartoonist from Connecticut. She started her career making New Yorker gags before getting her MFA at the Center for Cartoon Studies. Her short comic “How to Draw a Horse” appeared in the New Yorker and was nominated for an Eisner Award. She currently lives in the Upper Valley, where she spends most of her time trying to stay warm.

Emma Hunsinger is a cartoonist from Connecticut. She started her career making New Yorker gags before getting her MFA at the Center for Cartoon Studies. Her short comic "How To Draw a Horse" appeared in pages of the New Yorker and was nominated for an Eisner. She currently lives in the Upper Valley where she spends most of her time trying to stay warm.
Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Texas. She is a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, where she now teaches. She has published many graphic novels, including her Eisner Award-winning memoir Spinning. She lives in Vermont with her family.

Editorial Reviews

12/06/2021

Yardley Zurowski, this picture book’s pink-skinned kid narrator, is eager for a family outing to the park with little brother Seth, who has brown skin, and their two moms (one brown-skinned and one white). And then it happens: the parents are intercepted by the across-the-street-neighbors, the marvelously named Credenzas, and the four grown-ups settle in for a long chat (the topics, all “BORING” to Yardley’s ears, range from recipes to DIYing). The unfazed Seth is “too young to understand it’s hopeless,” but Yardley slowly loses it. Debut creator Hunsinger and Walden (Are You Listening?), who have a freewheeling style with both words and pictures, draw the cartoon protagonist with Keane-like eyes, a put-upon mien, and a body posture that seems almost liquid with despair as Yardley flashes back to situations such as contemplating a life caught “forever” in a black-and-white void. The moms finally wrap it up, and Yardley and Seth get their park playdate, but not before readers get to indulge in some deeply satisfying, all-too-real wallowing with an expressive character in full-throttle comic agony. Ages 3–6. Agents: (for Walden) Seth Fishman, the Gernert Co.; (for Hunsinger) Molly O’Neill, Root Literary. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Deeply satisfying, all-too-real wallowing with an expressive character in full-throttle comic agony." —Publishers Weekly

"Textual and visual humor is on constant boil... Pair this with Liz Scanlon’s Five Minutes for a witty dive into what kids endure in a trying adult world." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (BCCB)

"Accurately and humorously capture[s] the agony and interminability of waiting." —Booklist

From the Publisher

03/01/2022

K-Gr 3—In the two cartoonists' energetic picture book collaboration, Molly's moms—one brown, one white—announce a trip to the park. Little brother Seth, who has brown skin and seems to be two or three, and lighter-skinned Molly, who appears to be about five, are thrilled, but they're hardly out the door, when the chatty neighbors stall them. Molly considers herself an ace at waiting, but this time she almost can't bear it (it's unclear why this time is different), despite her active imagination. The very cartoonish illustrations sometimes make Molly's face a scary caricature but are overall lively and colorful, especially when Molly imagines sinking into the "forever" of her parents' talking, or realizes that she can unleash the full power of her fantasies. Unfortunately, much of the book is aimed over small heads, offering adults a chuckle via references to "gluten-free crystals" or unconventional (stereotyped) lifestyles. The slow exposition risks the reader's own patience, with little payoff. VERDICT The cartoonists are on Molly's side, but the pacing, disparate styles, anticlimax, and higher reading level are at odds with the intended audience.—Patricia D. Lothrop

School Library Journal