Three-time Caldecott Honor winner Mo Willems (Pigeon series) and National Book Award winner and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat (A First Time for Everything) show their hands (literally) in their cleverly enlightening, utterly hilarious debut picture book collaboration, Lefty: A Story That Is Not All Right. Photographs of hands jauntily topped with trendy, expressive glasses--Santat stays left, Willems keeps right--take to an ancient, columned stage to offer significant talking points, both historical and contemporary. In between, Santat handily displays wonderfully distinct illustrative styles--medieval, Greco-Roman, '60s advertising, panel comics--across eye-popping double-page spreads.
Willems's narrative opens in the past, with Lefty asking Righty, "Did you know... there was a time when people could get into trouble... really really BIG trouble... FOR BEING LEFT-HANDED?" Righty's understandable shock ("HUBBA WHAAAA!?!?") turns his eyewear askew as Lefty explains "It's true!" In an illustration reminiscent of a woodblock carving, three right hands with angrily intolerant villagers for fingers chase off an understandably frightened left-hand dragon. "You might be called 'sinister.' You might be told you were born 'WRONG.' " That sort of potentially fatal persecution forced people to hide themselves for fear "they would be left out."
Thankfully, anti-lefty prejudices eventually dissipated and handedness just is: naturally reaching for a pencil or picking up scissors shows if you're left- or right-handed, while those lucky to use both hands equally are ambidextrous. Many lefties are admired and recognized, like iconic artist Frida Kahlo; of course, right-handed Abraham Lincoln is also rather memorable, too. Like everyone else, left-handed people may also not be famous, may be "really, really nice," or perhaps may need to "work on being nicer." Whatever your handedness, "left or right, it's ALL alright."
Willems and Santat put on an undoubtedly smash-hit performance, with even a few Easter egg reminders of past bookish successes (younger devoted groupies will certainly not miss spotting the Pigeon). The creators' heartening underlying message never gets old: be yourself. "If you're hiding who you are, you feel rotten." Throughout the author and artist's playful teamwork, their dynamic pages are encouragingly representative of plenty of diversity, with the supporting cast's hands drawn in various hues. This dynamic duo's gleeful energy will prove unavoidably, invitingly infectious. Thumbs up, palms up, or hands together for a lively round of well-deserved applause. --Terry Hong
Shelf Talker: Powerhouses Mo Willems and Dan Santat cleverly use their own hands to provide energetic, entertaining, enlightening, empowering encouragement to children to never hide their true selves.