Silly Boobies: A Love Story

by Ame Dyckman, Christopher Weyant (Illustrator)

Overview

From a New York Times bestselling author and a Theodor Seuss Geisel Award–winning illustrator, a playful story about finding common ground when you least expect it.

Blue-footed boobies live on one rock. Red-footed boobies live on another. Blues and Reds keep apart…until one day a pair runs into each other and falls in love. Their families don’t approve. Silly boobies! But when something wonderful happens, can everyone finally agree?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781662504129
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	08/13/2024
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	272,729
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD470L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Ame Dyckman is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Wolfie the Bunny, as well as Campingland, You Don’t Want a Unicorn!, How Dinosaurs Went Extinct: A Safety Guide, Don’t Blow Your Top!, the Misunderstood Shark series, and many other books for children. Ame lives in central New Jersey with her husband, daughter, and a yard full of silly birds. (But no boobies…yet.) Learn more at www.amedyckman.com.

Christopher Weyant is the illustrator of Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner You Are (Not) Small and five more books in that series, as well as Marker, Hudson and Tallulah Take Sides, and Christopher Award winner Eraser. Christopher’s work can also be seen in the New Yorker and the Boston Globe, and his cartoons are syndicated worldwide. He lives in New Jersey with his family. Learn more at www.christopherweyant.com.

Editorial Reviews

05/27/2024

The red-footed boobies live on one island, the blue-footed boobies on another, and each population likes to taunt the other with cheers of “BEST! PPPBHT!” But when two bibliophile birds engrossed in their reading accidentally crash into each other on the landscape’s third island, “They looked. Not at each other’s feet. They looked into each other’s eyes.” The meet-cute seems poised for unnecessary judgment, but the couple can’t resist each other’s goofy charms and love of reading. Weyant (Hudson and Tallulah Take Sides) depicts their deepening attraction, expressed in silly courtship dances and rituals, with affectionate ink and watercolor cartoons. Determined not to be star-crossed, the feathered Romeo and Juliet are married by a hermit crab—the officiant is ordained, Dyckman (Don’t Blow Your Top!) notes, “thanks to a certificate he got on the internet.” When their egg produces a purple-footed fluffball, hearts on the opposing communities promptly melt, bringing an end to the Sneetch-like rift. True love prevails and unites in this booby-centered telling, which hints that one needn’t be a grown-up to savor the pleasures of a well-told rom-com. More about the seabirds concludes. Ages up to 7. Author’s agent: Scott Treimel, Scott Treimel NY. Illustrator’s agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

[A] solid, enjoyable tale about overcoming fear and accepting and celebrating differences, with the likable, goofy boobies making for a fun addition.” —Kirkus Reviews

“True love prevails and unites in this booby-centered telling, which hints that one needn’t be a grown-up to savor the pleasures of a well-told rom-com.” —Publishers Weekly

“Humorous lessons on life and animal behavior make this a memorable offering.” —The Horn Book Magazine

From the Publisher

2024-06-15
A Romeo and Juliet story in bird form.

The red-footed boobies live on one rock, while the blue-footed boobies live on another, separated by water. Never the twain shall meet. (A wise old hermit crab who says, “Boobies are silly!” lives on a rock between them.) All is calm until the day a pair of boobies—a young female with red feet and a young male with blue feet—come into contact, realize that they have a lot in common, and fall in love. The pair’s families oppose the match, but the hermit crab performs a marriage ceremony anyway, and soon a chick is born—with purple feet. Both the red- and blue-footed boobies claim ownership, but the parents overrule them all and start a new home with the hermit crab on the in-between rock. Is there anything new here? Not really. The illustrations reinforce gender norms (the female has red feet, the male blue; the female is depicted with long eyelashes), and we’ve seen different versions of this story before. Still, it’s a solid, enjoyable tale about overcoming fear and accepting and celebrating differences, with the likable, goofy boobies making for a fun addition. Weyant’s simple cartoons use plenty of white space. A note includes information on the real birds.

A peppy but predictable lesson in combating prejudice.(PIcture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews