Egg and Bird is the kind of book that makes booksellers' heads ache. Where does this book go? Alex Higlett has written a funny little book. It's about Egg and Bird. Egg is a child, and does childish things, and Bird is an adult who does adultish things. But then there's a bit of a surprise at the end.
Okay, so there's a surprise. This book still gives me a headache. First of all, I can't imagine anyone finding it amusing enough to pay $14.99 Canadian for it. Secondly, who is the audience? I don't think kids will get the joke (or if they get it, they won't find if funny). It is also a smallish book that easily gets lost amongst the other picture books. But if it's for adults, where am I supposed to put that? In the picture books for adults section? Does anyone have room for a shelf like that? Are there enough adults buying picture books for other adults that there is a market for this kind of thing?
The whole thing is making my head hurt.
Egg and Bird written and illustrated by Alex Higlett
ISBN 1405048972
24 pages
posted by bookstore girl @ 2:27 PM
1 Comments:
At 12:23 AM,
Matt said…
Ah, but it's a great book: funny, beautifully illustrated, nicely bound. The joke (quite a subtle one) is for adults, I think, who after all are most likely to be reading alongside their kids. For kids, the 'joke' is not a joke at all; it articulates an idea - a perfectly serious one - that strangely enough might not have occurred to a young child or, if it has, might be quite mystifying to him or her: that the child's parents have a life independent of the child's own, that the parent's life continues while the child is at school or asleep. I think you should put this book on a shelf. And then stop worrying about it. : )
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