Never Ever
A little girl lamenting the fact that nothing exciting ever happens to her is seemingly oblivious on her walk. First, there’s a flying pig following her. Then a purple gorilla, that’s joined by a lion and one of the turtles she stepped on crossing a stream. A giant lizard with a wide-open mouth escapes her notice, even when she marches straight into its belly. When it spits her back out (she apparently doesn’t taste very good), she continues to complain that nothing exciting “ever, ever … … ever, ever … … ever, ever …” happens. The visual humor builds as she climbs an incline revealed, in a two-panel fold-out (and up) page, to be a woolly mammoth, where she settles down on its head to go to bed. The ending offers young readers and listeners the chance to ponder: Is the fact that she sleeps on top of a woolly mammoth the reason she’s so unimpressed by everything that came before? Or is she oblivious to the mammoth, along with everything that came before? ©2014 Cooperative Children's Book Center
Illustrated by Jo Empson
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 3-6
Age Range:
Babies/Toddlers (birth – 3)
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Format:
Picture book
Subjects:
Animals (Fiction)
Imagination/Imaginary Play
Visual Counterpoint
Publisher:
Child's Play
Publish Year: 2013
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781846435522
CCBC Location: Picture Book, Empson