Look…Look Again!

Gr 2 Up—A series of recurring characters acts out a variety of gag scenarios in mostly silent, multipanel setups with a well-constructed, elementary twist in the final image. O'Brien provides a series of jokes that operate on multiple levels, most of which exhibit a visual pun at their heart as well as a secondary joke. The stippled texture of the watercolor backgrounds gives the stylized cartoons an interesting mosaic feel that seems slightly archaic. This, combined with the stock characters-a clown, a knight, a woodcutter, a farmer-and the formal setup/twist structure of the gags can make the entire work feel curiously medieval, as if the jokes could be Chaucerian in origin, the odd appearance of a telephone or an elevator notwithstanding. This doesn't make them inaccessible to a younger audience, who tend to enjoy wordplay and simple absurdities, but it does make the book unlikely to create passionate devotees who will call friends over to share in the joke. The concept of the title, that things are not always what they appear, will provide some whimsical enjoyment, but probably won't live up to its secondary aspect: that readers might revisit and reread the content a second or third time.—Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH