The Worst Book Ever

by Elise Gravel

Overview

Elise Gravel wants to write a totally drab book; her characters want to let loose. Who’s gonna win?

Don’t take the title as a metaphor: it really is the worst book ever. The winner of the Governor General Literary Award and children’s book author and illustrator Elise Gravel takes readers on an unexpected journey through the world’s most boring book in The Worst Book Ever. The characters and omniscient readers alike quickly become annoyed by the author’s bland imagination and rebel against her tired tropes and stale choices, spouting sass in an attempt to get her attention and steer the narrative in a more interesting direction. After all, you don’t even have to buy the book, but the characters? They’re stuck in there for an eternity, and they’re going to do their best to make the most of it, or at least have a little fun when they can.

As the charming and bizarre true nature of the characters overpowers the dry attributes given to them by the author, this once blasé story quickly picks up speed, transforming into something much more unique than originally promised. With Gravel’s signature goofy characters behind the wheel, no silly twist or rude body function is off the table.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770463639
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	05/28/2019
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	460,296
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	HL330L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

Elise Gravel is an author/illustrator from Montreal. After studying graphic design, she pursued a career writing and illustrating children’s books, where her quirky and charming characters quickly won the hearts of children and adults worldwide. In 2012, Gravel received the Governor General’s Literary Award for her book La clé à molette. A prolific artist, she currently has more than thirty children’s books to her name, which have been translated into a dozen languages, including The Disgusting Critters series, and If Found . . . Please Return to Elise Gravel, her challenge to young artists to keep a sketchbook. She lives in Montreal with her spouse, two daughters, cats, and a few spiders.

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2019

What makes “the worst book”? The latest from Gravel (You Can Be) is a fourth-wall-breaking showcase of picture book “don’t”s. Three critters rendered in Gravel’s signature comics style introduce an intentionally dull fairy tale with great skepticism (“Interesting title choice, isn’t it?” “I don’t think people are going to read this”), then criticize the story, illustrated in a less polished, childlike art style. Misspelled words, clichés, a lack of character diversity, sexist attitudes, and even what appears to be sponsored content (“Kiki-Cola! The drink of true heroes”) are all called out by the veritable Greek chorus of creatures before they lose interest and, in a narrative lull (one finger up her nose, “the prinsess rested”), nap and play a game of chess. At one point the book’s creator seems to react to the reviewers’ disapproval of repetitive vocabulary by overcompensating with $10 words (“The ambidextrous reptilian scurrilously gained entree into the haberdashery”); perhaps confusingly, this is the only time the creator seems aware of the running commentary. Adult readers will find the book a fine informal educational resource; younger readers are likely to enjoy both its up-tempo humor and being in on the meta take. Ages 6–10. Agent: Lori Nowicki, Painted Words. (May)

Publishers Weekly

A laugh-out-loud comic with intentional spelling mistakes, rudimentary drawings, an idiotic sexist hero, and a Greek chorus of blob-like monsters that introduces young readers to literary criticism.”—Quill & Quire, best of 2019

“Discerning readers of any age should find plenty to like about The Worst Book Ever, which is, in actuality, the very best kind of worst book —the kind that is actually secretly good.”—School Library Journal

“A fourth-wall-breaking showcase of picture book “don’t”s... an intentionally dull fairy tale [introduced] with great skepticism.”—Publishers Weekly

“The characters in Elise Gravel's book The Worst Book Ever positively hate the journey she's taking them on. Sick of the boring adventure and tired character tropes, they decide to take matters into their own hands.”—CBC Books

“Young readers, and all seekers of comic relief, should investigate Elise Gravel’s laugh-per-page The Worst Book Ever, a meta exercise in creating exactly what its title claims.”—The Montreal Gazette

“A clever, ingenious author’s “wurst” work yet.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Elise Gravel has managed to cram a host of problems into one short book, and then points them all out for the reader. It’s cute and funny, but it also helps readers to be more explicitly aware of the messages we’re presented with in other stories, which I think is a valuable lesson.”—Geek Dad

From the Publisher

2019-03-17
It's not every book that can be trite, dull, sexist, gross, kissy, violent, nondiverse, and replete with misspellings.

Of course Gravel does it all deliberately and to such comical effect that "I'm wondering if anyone is still reading this book!" from one of the motley blobs providing reactions to each successive literary malfeasance will definitely be a rhetorical question. The storyline features a "brave prinse" named Putrick, the "beautiful prinsess" Barbarotte, a monster roaring "POOPIE PEEPEE FART BOOGER!" and a closing revelation that it was all a dream. It is played out by anthropomorphic sausages as the trio of critics (a red spider, black inkblot, and lump of what could be silly putty or perhaps a pink turd) offer individual, often conflicting takes and observations: The inkblot celebrates the potty humor, for instance, even as the silly putty (or turd) decries it, for instance. Even they don't catch everything, though, as in the simply drawn cartoon scenes such details as the number of legs beneath Barbarotte's gown or the message on Putrick's shirt are subject to abrupt shifts that go unnoted, as do the decidedly gender-stereotypical decorative motifs on the final scene's twin beds. Once they pick up what's going on, young readers should have no trouble picking up the slack and pondering the many implications.

A clever, ingenious author's "wurst" work yet. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews