Top Shelf: Pete with No Pants

I began Top Shelf this year to identify what I perceive as the very best for first readers. As soon as I saw the title, Pete with No Pants, I said aloud, "This is a book for me."

Pete is an elephant searching to define himself. Is he a boulder? Is he a cloud? With a penchant for knock, knock jokes and not wearing pants, Pete is on the hunt for self-identification. Rowboat Watkins, author of Rude Cakes, has again brought freshness and ingenuity to the picture book world.

Rowboat's message, illustrations, and the sidebar discussion among the squirrels and owls will bring smiles to you and your readertotz. The illustrations, "pieced together with this and that," are muted and patterned. Maybe watercolor, pencil, and a bit of charcoal?

Pete with No Pants is Top Shelf. Welcome, Pete! I can't wait to share this with my daughters. And they are in their twenties. :)

Pete with No Pants
by Rowboat Watkins
Chronicle Books, 2017

Rude Cakes: Rowboat Watkins

Sometimes a special book comes across my path, and I LOVE IT! I share it with everyone, hold it close, tuck it on my shelf, and treasure it. And later I realize I NEVER TOLD READERTOTZ ABOUT IT!

Call me a rude cake, but Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins was my tip-top favorite book of 2015. Rowboat Watkins, a former Sendak Fellow, offers a surprising, original, and oh-so-humorous picture book to our readertotz. He illustrates the difference between rude and polite with Cakes and Giant Cyclopses. Yes, cyclopses.

Rowboat was a 2016, Ezra Jack Keats, New Illustrator Honor Award Winner. Here's what others have had to say:

"The zaniest picture book premise of the year."--Boston Globe
"A truly surreal story, crammed with hilarious details and gently laced with an important lesson."--School Library Journal, starred review
"Hilarious and full of surprises. Pure picture book genius!"-Antoinette Portis, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Not a Box

I'm so glad the genius was seen. I cannot wait for more from Rowboat. More, more, more!

Rude Cakes
by Rowboat Watkins
Chronicle Books, 2015