Warning: Do Not Open This Book!

by Adam Lehrhaupt (Author) Matthew Forsythe (Illustrator)

Reading Level: K − 1st Grade
An E. B. White Read-Aloud Honor Book
An ALA Notable Book
A Huffington Post Notable Book

CAUTION! This book contains monkeys, alligators, and a whole lot of silliness.

You really shouldn't be opening this book.
I'm serious.
Just put it back on the shelf.
Right...now.
You're still reading this?
Well, don't say I didn't warn you...

It looks like a book, it feels like a book, and it even smells like a book. But watch out...madness and mayhem lie within! Debut author Adam Lehrhaupt urges you NOT to take a walk on the wild side in this humorous, interactive romp with inventive and engaging illustrations from Eisner Award-winning comic artist and rising star children's book illustrator Matthew Forsythe. Warning: Do Not Open This Book! won the E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor award and was a 2013 Huffington Post Best Picture Book honorable mention and an ALA Notable Children's Book.

This quirky, subversive creation begs to be enjoyed again and again and again.

"These monkeys are a RIOT! And their books are funny, too!" --Ame Dyckman
Select format:
Hardcover
$19.99

Kirkus

In the tradition of humorous metafictive offerings of the past, this celebration of chaos is a veritable festival of fun.

Publishers Weekly

Mixed messages about reading abound, from Michaela Muntean and Pascal Lemaitre's Do Not Open This Book! to Cece Meng and Joy Ang's I Will Not Read This Book and Jesse Klausmeier and Suzy Lee's Open This Little Book. Lehrhaupt's debut predictably counts on curious readers to ignore the dire warning and its accompanying threat, "You don't want to let the monkeys out." As pages turn, lemurs, baboons, and rhesus monkeys stalk into the spreads, where they pluck at the printed words and paint trees for themselves. The narrator's uninspired pleas to readers ("Can you stop now? Everything used to be so good") scaffold Forsythe's (My Name Is Elizabeth!) primitive, earth-tone watercolors of the escalating melee. When a flock of toucans joins the troublemaking monkeys, and a giant alligator emerges from the right margin, readers get to be part of the solution: "You can catch them all in this book!" If Forsythe's grainy illustrations echo Jon Klassen's picture books, the mood in this outing is light and message-free. Ages 4-8. Illustrator's agent: Judith Hansen, Hansen Literary. (Aug.)

Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1—Children won't be able to resist the urge to turn the page as they wade through caution tape, warning signs, and scenes of chaos. The madcap mayhem includes monkeys stealing the illustrator's tools to paint their own drippy forest, a flock of swooping toucans, and an alligator sprawled across several spreads. Only the introduction of a banana trap can possibly save the story. The witty text is direct, and the art soars and leaps as much as the animals. Forsythe's digital art features a subtle palette of browns and grays and the characters are rendered in a bold contemporary style with simple broad strokes. In the grand tradition of books that warn children away from reading them, such as John Perry's The Book That Eats People (Tricycle, 2009), this one invites readers into the action. More fun than a barrel of monkeys.—Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

 
Adam Lehrhaupt
Adam Lehrhaupt's first picture book, Warning: Do Not Open This Book!, received the E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Award, was an ALA Notable Book, and a HuffPost Notable Book. School Library Journal called it, "More fun than a barrel of monkeys." He is also the author of Please, Open This Book!, which was named a Wanda Gag Comstock Read Aloud Honor Book, and Idea Jar. Adam has traveled to six continents, performed on Broadway, and lived on a communal farm. He currently lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his wife, sons, and two bizarre dogs. Visit him online at AdamLehrhaupt.com.

Pauline Gregory is a Devon-based illustrator, living by the sea. She specializes in children's literature. Following her passion, Pauline graduated from Plymouth College of Art with an honors BA in illustration.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781442435827
Lexile Measure
300
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date
August 27, 2013
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV002040 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Birds
JUV019000 - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories
JUV002020 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Apes, Monkeys, etc.
JUV020000 - Juvenile Fiction | Interactive Adventures
JUV002010 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Alligators & Crocodiles
Library of Congress categories
Humorous stories
Monkeys
Toucans
Alligators
E.B. White Read Aloud Award
Honor Book 2014 - 2014
South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award
Nominee 2015 - 2016

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