Jeremy draws a monster

Peter McCarty

Book - 2009

A young boy who spends most of his time alone in his bedroom makes new friends after the monster in his drawing becomes a monstrous nuisance.

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Subjects
Genres
Picture books
Published
New York : Henry Holt 2009.
Language
English
Main Author
Peter McCarty (-)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
unpaged : ill
ISBN
9780805069341
Contents unavailable.
Review by New York Times Review

"LITTLE BUNNY ON THE MOVE," Peter McCarty's first picture book, from 1999, was a tale of a single-minded bunny who lets nothing stall him on the way to his mysterious destination. The story's spare, insistent prose and the illustrations, evoking a surreal pastoral, build a delicious suspense. It offers a lovely metaphor for holding to one's inner vision in spite of naysayers and obstacles, and like all McCarty's stories shows fidelity to the emotions of young children. In "Hondo & Fabian," which won a Caldecott Honor in 2003, another important theme emerges: the primacy of friendship. Hondo, a lumbering Labrador, and a tetchy house cat named Fabian live together like a companionable married couple, contentedly anchored by their daily routine - sleeping, eating, playing, eating and sleeping some more - in their neighborhood nirvana. In a sequel, "Fabian Escapes," the two pets endure the meddling of others until they can be together again. Achieving that kind of enviable companionship is the goal of Henry, a lovesick calico cat in "Henry in Love," and Jeremy, a little boy in "Jeremy Draws a Monster," McCarty's latest picture books. In the laboratory of first love, the classroom, Henry has discovered his ideal: a winsome bunny named Chloe. He spends his class time hovering and yearning. The world depicted in McCarty's tender, amusing valentine is another homey paradise, his russet inks tinted with deephued watercolors to create an atmosphere of warmth. The day Henry finally makes his move begins with all his reassuring routines; here McCarty acutely delineates how every day is a lifetime for young children, and how the present feels like all there is. Chloe, who is seated in the back row, catches Henry staring at her: "Are you looking at me?" Yes, he is, and his romantic longing is pictured as a sprightly wash of red forget-me-nots whooshing toward her. Finally, Henry approaches her at recess, and the chase is on. How does a boy win a girl? By impressing her, of course, so Henry does his best forward roll. Impressive, though not nearly as impressive as Chloe's cartwheel. While playing tag, she nimbly outmaneu vers him again: "You will never catch me!" she proclaims from atop a jungle gym. All seems lost until serendipity gives Henry one more chance. At break time, Chloe asks to see what he brought for snack. He shows her his blueberry muffin, and she takes it as an offering. Contact made! This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. FRIENDSHIP is all Jeremy wishes for as he gazes out his window at a group of kids playing. There's no suburban nirvana in "Jeremy Draws a Monster." In the sharp-edged ink and watercolor illustrations, Jeremy's red-bricked apartment building is a fortress of urban solitude, the stark white of the paper reinforcing Jeremy's arctic isolation. His only companions are his drawings. "Most of my childhood was spent in my head," McCarty has said, and you think of that as you spy rough sketches of Fabian, Hondo and a familiar bunny hanging in Jeremy's bedroom. (The endpapers feature a harried-looking adult McCarty carrying a bag of groceries, his sightline awhirl with preliminary sketches of characters.) On an especially lonesome day, Jeremy takes out his fanciest pen and draws like a fiend, and that's what he gets - a monstrous blue fiend (who brings to mind an amalgam of Zero Mostel and a Blue Meante from "Yellow Submarine"). The monster demands that Jeremy draw him a sandwich, record player, television, telephone and finally a red top hat, for he is going out. Exhausted after all that, Jeremy hopes his monstrous creation is gone for good. Not a chance. Literary creations have a life of their own (as Arthur Conan Doyle, who attempted to get rid of Sherlock Holmes over the Reichenbach Falls, learned; "justifiable homicide," he claimed, but he was forced by infuriated readers to resurrect his beloved character). After his evening out, the monster returns like the nightmare he is and takes over Jeremy's bed. The sleepless night, however, gives Jeremy plenty of time to create a solution. He draws a one-way bus ticket out of town and a suitcase, and the monster, like the bad guy in a western, is forced to pack up and leave. Tired of having only imaginary companions, Jeremy seeks out real friends, in this marvelous and comic tale of the consolations and limits of our imaginations. Sherie Posesorski is the author of a young adult novel, "Shadow Boxing."

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [February 14, 2010]
Review by Booklist Review

Be careful what you wish for, or in this case, draw. Jeremy lives on the top floor of an apartment building where he has his own room and never goes outside. One day he takes his fancy pen and draws a monster. Immediately, the monster demands a sandwich, then a toaster, record player, checkerboard, chair, TV, piece of cake, and hat so he can go out and have fun. Jeremy is relieved, but the monster returns. The next morning, Jeremy cleverly draws a suitcase and a bus ticket and takes the monster down to the street and the bus. Once outside, Jeremy is finally asked by neighborhood kids to play ball. The finely rendered pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations skillfully delineate characters and objects, which stand out against full-page white spaces, most impressively with the blue, blobby, squiggly, horned monster himself. A top-notch Harold and the Purple Crayon for a new generation.--Cummins, Julie Copyright 2009 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Where Harold used his purple crayon to get out of scrapes, Jeremy's blue pen causes him problems after he designs a cantankerous, linebacker-sized monster who demands a long list of items before commanding, "Draw me a hat. I'm going out!" Jeremy draws a magnificent red top hat and the monster waddles out the door, only to return later that night and commandeer the bed. "The next morning, Jeremy drew a bus ticket and a suitcase," and he last sees his tormentor watching him from the bus's back window. McCarty, who favored atmospheric, silver-gray pencil drawings in books like Moon Plane, floats this story's action in white negative space. Yet even if the pen, ink and watercolor illustrations have a sharper edge, the monster's wide-set pinprick eyes and squat, potato-shaped body echo McCarty's Hondo and Fabian. The monster is obnoxious, but it's also a catalyst: after it leaves, Jeremy quits his seclusion and plays with other kids. Jeremy's creation has attitude to spare and although it's annoying, readers may lament its hasty departure. Ages 3-6. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 1-In the tradition of Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon (HarperCollins, 1955), McCarty delivers a character who draws objects to life. This story, however, has a modern touch and an interesting psychological twist. Readers meet Jeremy, a blond, spike-haired boy garbed in a pink-striped shirt emblazoned with a large 3, alone in his third-floor apartment, gazing at a group of children playing ball below. The text reads, "He had his very own room. He never left. He never went outside." But Jeremy does have a fancy pen, and one day he conjures up a robust blue monster that, in short order, demands a sandwich, a checkerboard, a television, and a hot dog, which Jeremy and his pen quickly supply. Soon the novelty wears off and when the monster demands a hat because he is "going out," Jeremy is relieved to see him go. The monster returns, but Jeremy takes charge and when he departs for good, the neighborhood children gather-"Do you want to play ball?" they ask, and indeed Jeremy does. McCarty matches his understated story with both black-and-white and color illustrations that flow loosely across ample white space; the openness of the images gives just the right feel to the tale. The monster is not particularly scary, and the balance of power, which comes not from might but from Jeremy's ingenuity, is the book's strength. Both story and illustration leave lots of room for speculation and discussion; children will love to pore over the endpapers, as well.-Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

With simplicity and quiet depth, a boy creates a challenge and meets it. In Jeremy's isolated corner of his "three-story apartment building," the pen-lined black-and-red bricks are dark and detailed, while on the other end, color and shading fade into blankness. This illustrative pattern continues throughout: Generous white space spotlights and protects the sparse figures and objects, giving them clarity. Jeremy (with a pen, Harold-like) draws a blue monster with a self-entitled personality. "Draw me a sandwich," it demands, then a toaster, checkerboard, telephone and hat, never saying thank you. It departs (Jeremy's relief is palpable) but returns and displaces Jeremy from bed. A pale-blue watercolor square, superimposed over the bed and free-floating window, gently connotes nighttime. McCarty's distilled text doesn't spell out intention, but "The next day, Jeremy drew a bus ticket and a suitcase." Seeing the monster off onto an out-of-town bus leaves Jeremy next to a group of watercolor children with varying pen-lined hair. They invite him to play and he acceptsmonster gone, loneliness banished. Neat and unassuming. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.