I Do Not Like Stories

Written by Andrew Larsen

Illustrated by Carey Sookocheff

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-378-1

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

September 2020

Like many children, this child has very definite preferences, especially about the types of stories he likes. Actually he is more adamant about the types of stories he doesn't like than those he likes. But does he really know what he doesn't like?

From I Do Not Like Stories by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Carey Sookocheff

From waking up to his cat pawing his face to getting dressed, feeding his fish, heading to school and participating in his school day, the child is reminded about all the stories he doesn't like i.e., stories about fish and buildings, numbers and fruit, and buses and bikes. As the day goes on, everything remind him of the stories he doesn't like.

From I Do Not Like Stories by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Carey Sookocheff

But as the boy relates all the stories he does not like, his cat, a lovely tuxedo, lives those stories. The boy doesn't like stories about numbers or letters but his cat races by a parking meter and surprises the postal carrier with his bag of mail. The boy languishes over his lunch fruit and thinks about how much he does not like stories about apples or pears or peaches or plums while his feline friend visits a fruit stand, toppling produce after a dog chases it away. For each experience for which the child recounts his dislike of stories, his cat is creating its own stories about that same set of circumstances. From trees to going home and doing things, the boy dislikes the stories and the cat lives them.

From I Do Not Like Stories by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Carey Sookocheff

In the end, the boy relents that he might like a story about a cat.

Without establishing the fact that the child has been wrong all along and that he, in fact, does like stories, Andrew Larsen delivers that message with a tongue-in-cheek approach. It's like a parent who smiles, knowing that the child who insists that they don't like something will like it once they try it. It's accepting a child's assertions as true but allowing for leeway in the actuality of those pronouncements. By allowing the child to come to that realization himself, Andrew Larsen takes the adult out of the equation and makes it all about the growth of the child in learning what he might like for himself.

As in her earlier books (see What Happens Next, Wet and Buddy and Earl for other samples), Carey Sookocheff's illustrations play on the author's important message and elevates it with subtlety of colour and line for greater impact. Her artwork plays on that juxtaposition of child and cat, what one affirms and the other experiences. Same circumstances but different perspectives and appreciation for those circumstances. Carey Sookocheff's minimalist palette, primarily pale blue-greys with splashes of yellow and orange, keeps the reader focused on the darkest elements of her illustrations: the cat and the child's head. So, while it is the child's head only that has decided what he doesn't like, it's the whole cat that lives life, pursuing adventures and involving itself in its day fully.

For any child who cannot see beyond a pervasive opinion that may or may not be valid, I Do Not Like Stories will make them think twice and perhaps even consider a different perspective to the story.

From I Do Not Like Stories by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Carey Sookocheff