Oops!

by Julie Massy, Pascale Bonenfant (Illustrator), Charles Simard (Translator)

Overview

Tap the page, shake the book, shout, clap and imagine a silly world of before-and-afters in this interactive picture book.

What happens when you knock on an egg? Flip a plate of sloppy spaghetti? Clap your hands near a tree full of birds?...OOPS! When children might otherwise be encouraged to be careful or quiet, in Oops! they are invited to explore cause and effect in mischievous scenarios without the real-life consequences. The results are often surprising and always fun!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459842328
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Pages:	42
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.25(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 2 Years

About the Author

Julie Massy studied art and design and has been an art director and designer of books of all kinds, including children’s books, novels, cookbooks and coffee table books, for almost ten years at La courte échelle in Montréal.

Pascale Bonenfant uses drawing, collage, watercolors and sometimes screen printing to create her playful works of art. In the last few years her work has appeared in a wide range of exhibitions and publications, including more than a dozen books. Her first book, Le parapluie jaune, written by Lili Chartrand, won third prize in the prestigious Concours Lux 2011 (Livre Jeunesse). Originally from Rimouski, Quebec, Pascale now teaches graphic design in Quebec City.

Charles Simard is a Québécois editor and translator from Tiohtià꞉ke / Montréal. He works as poetry, fiction, and nonfiction editor for Talonbooks in Vancouver on Coast Salish Territory. His published work includes the essay Littérature, analyse et forme: Herbert, Tolkien, Borges, Eco (EUE, 2010) and a number of translations for Orca Book Publishers, including Elise Gravel’s The Wrench and Myriam Daguzan Bernier’s dictionary of sexuality, Naked!. As a lexicographer, he has collaborated on the making of the popular linguistic suite Antidote in its bilingual editions. He holds a PhD in literature from Université de Montréal and was a postdoctoral fellow at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.

Editorial Reviews

Presents a new way for parents and children alike to understand how to deal with accidents without expressing negative emotions...A must-have for all children’s collections. Highly Recommended.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

2023-01-12
An interactive picture book lures its readers into breaking with convention.

From the very start, the text, translated from French, plays devil’s advocate with its young readership. The book opens with a spread featuring a single egg and text reading, “Eggs are very breakable. Why don’t you try knocking on this egg?” A turn of the page reveals that the child’s knocking has resulted in a broken egg, a bright yellow chick, and “Oops!” Lest you mistake that “Oops!” for an apology, the next page shows a dozen more eggs, prompting readers to “Give them a whack!” Doing so, however, yields a sea of yolks and the pointed “Oops!” yet again. As the book continues, gentle chaos reigns and the narrator urges readers to transgress by squashing toothpaste tubes, dropping mugs, flipping full bowls of noodles, and more. Within the safety of the page, kids are allowed to indulge in a cathartic release of naughty inclinations. The simple, colorful pages leave readers in little doubt of the results of their “actions.” Certainly children who flinch from deviating from the rules will find this book more perturbing than inspiring, but for others it may prove a joyful release. With just a hint of Shel Silverstein’s Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book (1961), this work gives anarchic impulses a good name. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

As unapologetic as it is gleeful. Rule abiders need not apply. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews