Potato Pants!

by Laurie Keller, Laurie Keller (Illustrator)

Overview

A potato and his eggplant nemesis struggle to find the perfect pants in this hilarious, heartwarming tale of forgiveness by bestselling Geisel-Award winning creator Laurie Keller.

Potato is excited because today—for one day only— Lance Vance’s Fancy Pants Store is selling . . .POTATO PANTS!

Potato rushes over early, but just as he’s about to walk in, something makes him stop. What could it be? Find out in this one-of-a-kind story about misunderstandings and forgiveness, and—of course—Potato Pants!

A Christy Ottaviano Book

This title has Common Core connections.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250107237
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	142,129
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Laurie Keller is the acclaimed author-illustrator of Do Unto Otters, Arnie, the Doughnut, The Scrambled States of America, and Open Wide: Tooth School Inside, among numerous others. She grew up in Muskegon, Michigan, and always loved to draw, paint and write stories. She earned a B.F.A. at Kendall College of Art and Design, then worked at Hallmark as a greeting card illustrator for seven-and-a-half years, until one night she got an idea for a children’s book. She quit her job, moved to New York City, and soon had published her first book. She loved living in New York, but she has now returned to her home state, where she lives in a little cottage in the woods on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Editorial Reviews

…whimsical…Keller presents a worst-case scenario and gradually dispels the fear…There's plenty of silly illustrations and attractive potato pants to keep chuckling readers turning pages to the end.

The New York Times Book Review - Michael Ian Black

08/06/2018
In this offbeat picture book, the clothes make the... tuber? That’s how Potato sees things, barely containing his excitement, even doing the Robot (well, “PO-bot”) before rushing down to the one-day Potato Pants sale at Lance Vance’s Fancy Pants Store. (“I want a stripey pair just like the ones in the window, with stripey suspenders for added stripey-ness!”) But his enthusiasm quickly deflates when he sees Eggplant, who knocked him down the day before. Potato’s resulting anxiety over entering the store unfolds over spot illustrations that show emotive, newly trousered ’taters and Potato attempting to take his business elsewhere in comic talk bubbles containing amusing asides. Just when all hope of scoring a pair of pants seems lost, Eggplant and Potato clear up their misunderstandings, and Potato becomes a dud-less spud no longer. The story by Keller (We Are Growing!), buoyed by her kinetic mixed-media compositions (including potato stamps), blends humor and a theme of forgiveness. Final pages pay tribute to designer Tubérto and his Potato Pants collection. Ages 4–8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Booklist Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Vermont Red Clover Award
A Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award Nominee
A Minnesota Star of the North Picture Book Nominee

"A manic tale that’s going to be very hard to read without inducing “peels” of laughter . . . Keller constructs an alliteration-rich narrative using plenty of exclamation points and big type in multiple colors to crank the volume up even further. It’s potato pandemonium, any way you slice it. "—Booklist, starred review

"There's plenty of silly illustrations and attractive potato pants to keep chuckling readers turning pages to the end."—The New York Times

"A high-energy read with plenty of kid appeal."—Kirkus Reviews

"The story by Keller, buoyed by her kinetic mixed-media compositions (including potato stamps), blends humor and a theme of forgiveness."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher