Rules of the House

by Mac Barnett, Matt Myers (Illustrator)

Overview

From the bestselling team of Mac Barnett and Matthew Myers comes a hilarious tale of sibling rivalry, moral complexity, and disgruntled monsters, perfect for sharing with your own favorite rule-breakers!

Ian likes rules. His sister, Jenny does not. And when the woodsy vacation house where their family is spending the summer comes with a posted set of rules, it's a certain recipe for disaster: Brush your teeth. Make your bed. And never, EVER, open the red door!

"Barnett focuses his inimitable blend of energy and fiendish imagination on children's fascination with the rules.... No solemn moralizing, just a rib-tickling, slightly subversive read-aloud." —Publishers Weekly

Don't miss these other books by Mac Barnett!
Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem
Chloe and the Lion
How This Book Was Made
Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World)
Oh No! Not Again! (Or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423185161
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	658,398
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 11.60(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Mac Barnett is the author of many books for children, including Extra Yarn, illustrated by Jon Klassen, a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse, a New York Times bestseller; Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the E. B. White Read Aloud Award. Other titles include The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown, Chloe and the Lion, How This Book Was Made, Count the Monkeys, and Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem. He is the co-author, with Jory John, of the New York Times bestselling series The Terrible Two. Mac lives in California.

Matt Myers is the author and illustrator of Hum and Swish. Matt has illustrated many other books for children, including the New York Times  bestseller Battle Bunny, A Dog Named Doug, and the Infamous Ratsos series. When he's not painting or writing, he likes to build things, dig in the dirt, and hang out with his chickens. Matt lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can find him online at myerspaints.com.

Editorial Reviews

* "Barnett and Myers have created a winning tale of sibling rivalry and, ultimately, loyalty. Barnett's trademark dry humor appears in full force, and Myers' illustrations are wonderfully detailed."—Booklist

* "Readers will (probably) agree that even the most irritating siblings don't deserve to be cooked and eaten. As a rule."—Kirkus Reviews

"Barnett focuses his inimitable blend of energy and fiendish imagination on children's fascination with the rules... No solemn moralizing, just a rib-tickling, slightly subversive read-aloud."—Publishers Weekly

"Painterly illustrations quickly transform frightening images into comical ones, creating a mixture of silliness and creepiness—and alert viewers will notice the red eyes on the stove and rug just before they awaken. A scary but silly sibling story about times when breaking the rules might just be okay. The perfect read to prepare for a stay at a vacation house."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

06/01/2016
K-Gr 2—Ian likes rules. His older sister Jenny does not. The woodsy vacation house where their family is spending the summer comes with a posted set of rules, including a prohibition against opening a certain red door. Naturally, Jenny ignores all the rules, even the one about the red door. Her defiant opening of this door during an argument with Ian changes the genre of the story from realistic to fantastical, as all the household devices whose rules she's ignored ("Remove muddy shoes before you enter the house") come alive, each claiming that it will have rule-breaking Jenny for dinner. As the errant rug and appliances chop vegetables and sing made-up songs, Ian saves the day by citing a rule that they themselves have broken, giving Jenny the opportunity to help scare the creatures away. An early page showing trails through the woods literally causes the plot to wander, but occasional pages featuring just one line of text add suspenseful pacing. Painterly illustrations quickly transform frightening images into comical ones, creating a mixture of silliness and creepiness—and alert viewers will notice the red eyes on the stove and rug just before they awaken. VERDICT A scary but silly sibling story about times when breaking the rules might just be okay. The perfect read to prepare for a stay at a vacation house.—Jill Ratzan, Congregation Kol Emet, Yardley, PA

School Library Journal

★ 2016-03-16
Rules are meant to be followed, but when monsters threaten to eat your sister, a little transgression might be in order. The old mountain cabin where self-righteous Ian and his savage pincher of a big sister, Jenny, come for a stay has four posted rules: don't track mud on the bearskin rug; don't leave hair in the tub drain; replace any wood burned in the stove; and especially, don't open a certain red door. No problem for Ian, a rule follower to the nth degree…but Jenny is a poster child for mutinous, ill-tempered preadolescence, and in no time she's broken all four. That night she's snatched out of bed by a toothy bear, a frowning tub, and a cast iron stove with jack-o'-lantern eyes to be boiled up into "rulebreaker soup." Just deserts, you say? So thinks Ian, at first. But he stops in his headlong flight to reflect that even if there isn't a rule about always saving one's sister from monsters, maybe there should be. Ian returns to compromise his principles with a little fib about a bigger monster that sends the three animated furnishings hustling back through the red door. Along with comically exaggerating the contrast between the red-haired, annoyingly tidy lad and his scowling sib, Myers pitches the two white kids against a trio of deliciously menacing boojums in atmospherically moonlit rustic settings. Jenny isn't exactly reformed afterward, but at least her pinches aren't as painful. Readers will (probably) agree that even the most irritating siblings don't deserve to be cooked and eaten. As a rule. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews