The Barnabus Project

by Terry Fan, Eric Fan, Devin Fan

Overview

In a world built for Perfect Pets, Barnabus is a Failed Project, half mouse, half elephant, kept out of sight until his dreams of freedom lead him and his misfit friends on a perilous adventure. A stunning picture book from international bestsellers The Fan Brothers, joined by their brother Devin Fan.

Deep underground beneath Perfect Pets, where children can buy genetically engineered "perfect" creatures, there is a secret lab. Barnabus and his friends live in this lab, but none of them is perfect. They are all Failed Projects. Barnabus has never been outside his tiny bell jar, yet he dreams of one day seeing the world above ground that his pal Pip the cockroach has told him about: a world with green hills and trees, and buildings that reach all the way to the sky, lit with their own stars. But Barnabus may have to reach the outside world sooner than he thought, because the Green Rubber Suits are about to recycle all Failed Projects . . . and Barnabus doesn't want to be made into a fluffier pet with bigger eyes. He just wants to be himself. So he decides it's time for him and the others to escape. With his little trunk and a lot of cooperation and courage, Barnabus sets out to find freedom — and a place where he and his friends can finally be accepted for who they are.

This suspenseful, poignant and magical story about following your dreams and finding where you truly belong will draw readers into a surreal, lushly detailed world in which perfection really means being true to yourself and your friends.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735263260
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	72
Sales rank:	111,801
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD590L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

TERRY, ERIC and DEVIN FAN grew up in Toronto, where they continue to live and work. Since a young age, the three brothers have collaborated on creative projects, including artwork, picture book manuscripts and even screenwriting. Recipients of the prestigious Sendak Fellowship as well as Kate Greenaway Medal nominees and Governor General's Literary Award winners, Terry and Eric are the author/illustrators of the critically acclaimed books The Night Gardener and Ocean Meets Sky, and the illustrators of the bestselling Chris Hadfield-penned picture book The Darkest Dark, Dashka Slater's The Antlered Ship and Beth Ferry's The Scarecrow. Devin Fan is an artist, poet and youth worker who has a passion for nature, adventures and kung fu. The Barnabus Project is his first children's book and marks the first time all three brothers have written and illustrated a picture book together.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/06/2020

The Perfect Pet store’s friendly window display offers adorable fuzzy animals, “Genetically Engineered!” But in a laboratory deep underneath it, the Failed Projects are imprisoned: small, fuzzy cast-offs with names like Quirt and Moshi. Diminutive Barnabus—half mouse, half elephant—is inspired by Pip the cockroach’s descriptions of the world outside: “mountains that reached all the way to the sky, lit with their own stars.” After the group is slated for recycling, Barnabus leads his fellow Failed Projects out through the ventilation system (the subterranean depths are revealed in all their steampunk glory), pausing to liberate one last being before, in a chilling moment, coming face-to-face with the perfected version of himself: “It was almost like looking in a mirror, except Barnaby’s eyes were bigger, and his fur was like cotton candy.” The idealized Barnaby may be perfect, Barnabus realizes (“Fully trained!” declares the box)—but he is not free. A cinematic climax caps this romp as Terry and Eric Fan (Ocean Meets Sky), collaborating with their brother Devin, step out from earlier, atmospheric works to produce an ambitious drama of rebellion, escape, and inclusivity rewarded. Barnabus and his comrades win readers over, and the plot provides thumping moments of danger before delivering its allies to a collaborative future. Ages 5–9. Agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

WINNER of the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for Young People — Illustrated Text!
WINNER of the 2021 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Prize!

A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year
One of Amazon.com’s Best of the Year Picks
One of Evanston Public Library's 101 Great Books for Kids 
One of Booklist's Editors' Choice Books for Youth 2020
A CBC Books Bestseller
A Golden Duck Notable Picture Books List Pick
A 2021 Bank Street Book of the Year

PRAISE FOR The Barnabus Project:

“A heartfelt, timely allegory celebrating diversity, bravery, and solidarity.” —STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus Reviews

"[A]n ambitious drama of rebellion, escape, and inclusivity rewarded." —STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly

“The text and illustrations mesh wonderfully to convey the drama of the escape and the critical roles teamwork and friendship play in the animals’ success.” —STARRED REVIEW, Booklist

“A fun tale with a big heart, for all ages and all collections.” —STARRED REVIEW, School Library Journal

“In the Fan brothers’ hands, the result feels like a happy amalgam of Jules Verne, Maurice Sendak, the Moomins, and Monsters, Inc.” —STARRED REVIEW, Quill & Quire

“The story’s exploration of his longing to be free paired with the book’s always timely message of acceptance gives The Barnabus Project mass appeal and a timeless quality.” —BookPage

"Young children will delight in the colourful illustrations while older readers will admire Barnabus for his courage and virtue. The Barnabus Project is a book with wide appeal. It is sure to be a hit." —CM: Review of Canadian Materials

“An adventure to rival all picture-book adventures.” —Shelf Awareness

"A funny and tender picture book. . . . [V]isual surprises and pleasures abound in this cathartic delight for children." —Wall Street Journal

“When he and his imperfect friends decide to make a break for freedom, you’ll root for them every step of the way.” —Evanston Public Library

“The storyline is like blades ever-turning and a twist on a timeless tale which remains fresh.” —International Examiner

From the Publisher

08/14/2020

K-Gr 3—This quirky epic only lacks Spielberg directing to fulfill its cinematic wingspan—and perhaps it will get it. In ingeniously imaginative illustrations, the story unfolds: Barnabus has been labeled a failed project because he is half-mouse, half-elephant with beady eyes and a non-fluffy body. The green rubber suits want him to live his whole life under a small glass dome in a secret basement lab with the other less-than-perfect pets. But when Barnabus learns he could lose his friends, his dreams, and his taste for his favorite foods (cheese and peanuts) because he's about to be "recycled," he decides to escape. This endearing picture book, with graphite and digital illustrations, will rouse justice-minded children to action with its reminders of the important things in life. The three Fan brothers have created new characters who overcome seemingly impossible odds by being resilient, using teamwork, and not leaving anyone behind. VERDICT A fun tale with a big heart, for all ages and all collections.—Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake P.L., Alta.

School Library Journal

★ 2020-05-03
This epic tale of escape and liberation, set in a clandestine underground lab producing genetically engineered Perfect Pets, stars courageous Barnabus, half mouse, half elephant.

Along with a collection of creatures, Barnabus is a Failed Project, dubiously destined, according to cockroach pal Pip, to be “recycled.” Barnabus and his roommates—Light-Up Lois, Mushroom Sloth, and others—spend banal days imprisoned in bell jars, fed, poked and prodded by the Green Rubber Suits. With their fates sealed, Barnabus avows, “We need to escape!” Discovering that his elephantine trumpeting can break glass, Barnabus frees the others. The brave misfits, pursued by their creators and captors, escape through venting, emerging into another lab. The band works together to free a fellow captive, an enormous, cyclopian marine creature, releasing a flood of tank water that sweeps them out of the building’s depths and into the pet shop above the lab. The escaped company, discovering the wide world foretold by Pip, finds a lake, sunshine, grass, and trees: “a place that might be home.” The Fan brothers (Eric and Terry, joined for this project by Devin) generate copious precisely rendered, action-packed illustrations that capture the lab’s sinister labyrinth, the poignant features of the “failed” creatures, and moonlit cityscapes whose skyscraper “mountains” reach “all the way to the sky, lit with their own stars.”

A heartfelt, timely allegory celebrating diversity, bravery, and solidarity. (Picture book. 4-9)

Kirkus Reviews