As with so many of Shaun Tan's (The Arrival) creations, this magnetic picture book with minimal text allows readers to enter a world with limitless interpretations.
The text sends up the requisite "What I Did on My Summer Vacation." Before the story begins, readers see two children, backlit by the summer sun in a gray cityscape. The taller one, crouching, whispers to the shorter one. Are they siblings? Friends, and the taller one is the alpha? The title page explodes in golden sun, the taller child blowing a horn, the shorter one behind him, beating a red drum, dropping a drumstick. "This is what I learned last summer: Never leave a red sock on the clothesline," opens the narrator, cowering by a fence as the larger child covers his mouth. A menacing red rabbit stares over the fence with eyes that match the sock, dangling from a clothespin. "Never eat the last olive at a party," reads the text as the narrator reaches for it and the taller child pulls him back; giant hawks with olive-shaped eyes keep watch, dressed in tuxedos.
Each directive begins with "never"; each illustration depicts the consequences of the transgression. Tan alters perspective and palette, keeping the narrative structure constant. The book comes to a climax when the smaller child fights the larger child ("Never ask for a reason"), with the rabbit, hawks and other creatures from previous pages as spectators. The hard-won resolution brings hope, as the small boy, with a horn, leads their two-boy band, and the larger boy plays drums. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness