What Are You Doing, Benny? - Hardcover

CARY FAGAN is an award-winning author for children and adults. His kids' books include Mort Ziff Is Not Dead, the Kaspar Snit novels, the two-volume Master Melville's Medicine Show, Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas and the picture books Little Blue Chair and Mr. Zinger's Hat, winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and the IODE Jean Throop Award. He has also won the Jewish Book Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, and has been shortlisted for the Silver Birch Award (five times), the Rocky Mountain Book Award (twice), the Hackmatack Award (twice), the Norma Fleck Award, the Shining Willow Award and others. Cary lives in Toronto with his family.

KADY MACDONALD DENTON is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling illustrator. In 1998 she was awarded the Governor General's Award for A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. Her books have also won the 2008 Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize, the 2006 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award and are regularly featured on the Junior Library Guild Selection and the Canadian Children's Book Centre's Best Books for Kids and Teens list. Her illustrations for Bonny Becker's A Visitor for Bear and its sequels are instnatly recognizable around the world.

PreS-Gr 1-A sweet story about how it's much more fun to do anything when you're deliberately not allowing a younger sibling to join. Benny is busy, but his little brother is desperately and inexpertly trying to convince Benny to let him join in. Each entreaty, no matter how convincing, is met with a resounding no. Mostly what Benny wants is to be followed around by his adoring little brother so that he can continue to say no. But even little brothers have their limits, and when Benny's little brother's patience is finally exhausted, it is up to Benny to make amends and, finally, maybe, say yes. Watercolor and gouache illustrations create a delicate and detailed background for the two fox brothers. The story is told in the first person, and the small black text grows in size as Benny's little brother becomes more and more frustrated. The expertly drawn facial expressions depict Benny's smug contrariness and his little brother's sad downcast eyes. Pages are often divided into small quarter panels to highlight the little brother's quick, excited questions and give perfect comedic timing to the inevitable "no." This is an excellent and realistic portrayal of the balance and kindness of sibling relationships. VERDICT Hand this to fans of Lauren Child's "Charlie and Lola" books.-Laken Hottle, Providence Community LibraryIα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.