• Age: 4 to 8
• Grade: p to 3
• Reading age: 4 to 8

Recipient of the Wanda Gag Read Aloud Book Award
They told you, but you just couldn’t listen—so the creators of Warning: Do Not Open This Book! are back with a zany monkey crew, and they need your help!

In Warning, Do Not Open This Book!, which School Library Journal called “more fun than a barrel of monkeys,” turning pages meant increased chaos and delight. Now the tables have turned, and opening the book is the only way to save the group of monkeys who are trapped between its pages. This irresistibly entertaining rescue effort puts power in the hands of the page-turner, and giggles into everyone!

“These monkeys are a RIOT! And their books are funny, too!” —Ame Dyckman

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 Huffington Post 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.

Adam Lehrhaupt's profile page

Matthew Forsythe crée des bandes dessinées, des albums illustrés et des modèles pour l'animation. Sa bande dessinée Ojingogo a été en lice pour le prix Eisner à deux reprises, et il était le graphiste en chef de l'émission télévisée Adventure Time. Aux Éditions Scholastic, il a illustré Je m'appelle Catherine d'Annika Dunklee. Pour faciliter ses recherches, Matthew a été de mauvaise humeur tout le long de la création de ce livre. Il habite à Montréal.

Matthew Forsythe makes comics and picture books and designs for animation. His comic Ojingogo was noMinated twice for an Eisner Award, and he was the lead designer on the TV show Adventure Time. For research purposes, he was in a bad mood the whole time he drew this book. Matthew lives in Montreal.

Matthew Forsythe's profile page

Recepient of the 2016 Wanda Gág Read Aloud Book Award

As the manic animals from Warning! Do Not Open This Book! (2013) return, now exhorting readers not to close the book. A monkey with a lantern illuminating ink-black pages rejoices: "You opened the book. We're saved!" Illustrating many of the terrible things that can happen when a book is closed, Forsythe produces an alligator in a cast, a toucan with a bandaged beak, and a frightened lemur peeking from a box. A battered banana is proffered as further evidence. Stalling readers from reaching the book's end, the narrator offers to change the story. "We'll write something with a hero and heroine. You'll like it. It will be a good story!" Amusingly, the earth-toned, digitally composed illustrations depict a gorilla hunkered over a typewriter; strewn about are drafts whose only word is "banana." More bribes (that banana, now half-eaten) naturally won't deter readers from turning the pages. The panicky monkey laments: "One more page and… // THIS BOOK WILL BE // …CLOSED!" This anguished word winds up on the back cover, with small-print instructions: "You can fix this. Flip it over and…." The metafictive silliness will require the suspension of disbelief: if a closed book could hurt its characters, wouldn't a page turn inflict some minor injury?

August 1, 2015

InWarning: Do Not Open This Book! Lehrhaupt begged readers not to allow theanimals in that book to escape; now, the animals plead with children to leavethis book open, so they aren’t trapped inside. Lehrhaupt’s humor is sharperthis time around, even edgy—a toucan and gator wear bandages, suggesting thatshutting a book doesn’t just trap characters, it injures them. Set againstblack backgrounds, Forsythe’s digital artwork is equally attuned to theslightly sadistic mood. As book’s end approaches, he delivers an extremeclose-up of a dewy-eyed monkey making its desperate plea to readers: “We’ll begood. Promise.”

September 28, 2015