No, David!

August 31, 1998
In this boisterous exploration of naughtiness, Shannon (How Georgie Radbourne Saved Baseball) lobs one visual zinger after another as David, a little dickens, careens from one unruly deed to the next--coloring on the walls, tracking mud all over the carpet, jumping on the bed in red cowboy boots. Meanwhile, all those timeless childhood phrases echo in the background: "Come back here!" "Be quiet!" "Not in the house, David!" and most vigorously--"No!" Shannon's pen whisks over the double-page spreads in a flurry of energy, as he gains perspective on an image of a bare-bottomed David cavorting down a quiet suburban street or closes in on the boy's face as he inserts a finger into his triangle nose, his button eyes tense with concentration, and perfectly round head looming larger than the pages. While Shannon gives David the purposeful look of a child's crude drawings, his background settings (the kitchen sideboard, a toy-littered TV room) are fully rendered, effectively evoking the boy's sense of displacement. This dead-on take on childhood shenanigans ends on a high note, with the penitent David (he broke a vase with a baseball) enfolded in his mother's arms as she assures him, "Yes, David, I love you." Readers won't be able to resist taking a walk on the wild side with this little rascal, and may only secretly acknowledge how much of him they recognize in themselves. Ages 2-up.

Starred review from August 1, 1998
PreS-Gr 2-In this ode to bad and boisterous little boys, a resourceful and inventive young David wreaks havoc in every room of the house and even runs down the road nude. He reaches too far for the cookie jar, tracks in too much dirt, bangs too loudly, and creates a potato head with string-bean arms and chicken legs instead of eating his dinner. He even sticks his finger up his nose farther than anatomy would seem to allow. The text consists mostly of his mother saying, "No, David," or variations thereof. Finally, a broken vase leads to banishment to a chair in the corner and a tear on the cheek, which leads to a motherly hug and the best affirmation of all-"Yes, David...I love you!" The vigorous and wacky full-color acrylic paintings portray a lively and imaginative boy whose stick-figure body conveys every nuance of anger, exuberance, defiance, and, best of all, the reassurance of his mother's love. This book is perfect for reading aloud. Children will relish the deliciously bad behavior and the warm and cuddly conclusion.-Susan Pine, New York Public Library

September 1, 1998
Ages 3^-5. The author-illustrator of "How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball" (1994) and "A Bad Case of Stripes" (1998), among others, aims at a younger audience with this tally of no-nos inspired by a plainly autobiographical book he created as a small child. All little David hears from his mother as he writes on the wall, runs naked down the road, lets water pour over the side of the tub, sticks his finger far, far up his nose, and the like is "No, David!" "That's enough, David!" "Settle down!" Although Shannon's painterly technique is sophisticated, here he artfully gives his illustrations a childlike look, depicting David as a wooden-doll-like figure with a big, round head, cavorting through a neatly kept home replete with invitingly blank walls and fragile knick-knacks. As the book ends with a parental hug and "Yes, David . . . I love you!" it's not completely negative, and because young listeners will know ALL the words, the temptation to chime in will be irresistible. ((Reviewed September 1, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)

January 1, 1999
"No"--the word toddlers hear most--figures prominently in this spirited book as it tags along after an impishly drawn boy constantly reprimanded for doing something he shouldnt. Robustly colored close-ups of David flooding the bathtub and jumping on the bed convey his surplus energy while endearing him to readers, who will be glad to see his mother reassuring him of her love at the end.

(Copyright 1999 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)