Not being perfect has its virtues in this irresistible child’s-eye view.
Your best friend is kind of a show-off. Your baby sister is loud. And Mom can be pretty stubborn. Not perfect! But sometimes they come pretty close, and you do, too. David Elliott’s winning, tongue-in-cheek text combines with Sam Zuppardi’s fresh, kid-friendly illustrations to show that life may be more about patience than perfection, and that focusing on the positive reaps its own rewards.
Zuppardi's loose, scribbly, deceptively child-styled pencil outlines vibrate with energy, and his colorful acrylic backgrounds feature uninhibitedly visible brush strokes, drips, splotches and lines made from pulling a tool through wet paint. The kids have enormous heads; their wide-open mouths are unabashedly colored in with gray pencil. —Kirkus Reviews
Loose drawings, full of scribbly pencil lines, busy up the surface and have an unfinished look: just as the boy is a work in progress, so is his world, exuberant with color and frenzied detail. ... In this era of striving for parental perfection, the idea that imperfections are no reason to despair is a pretty good theme for a picture book and should be appreciated by both reader and listener alike. —Booklist
David Elliott offers 4- to 8-year-olds a bit of emotional release with “Nobody’s Perfect,” a picture book whose jaunty tone and charitable theme are perfectly matched by Sam Zuppardi’s bright, explosive, scribbly illustrations. —The Wall Street Journal
Perfect for readers who like oversized cartoon drawings —Children's Bookwatch
David Elliott says that his sister really does have a cat with one eye and that she was the inspiration for the cat in this story (the cat, not the sister).
View titles by David Elliott
Not being perfect has its virtues in this irresistible child’s-eye view.
Your best friend is kind of a show-off. Your baby sister is loud. And Mom can be pretty stubborn. Not perfect! But sometimes they come pretty close, and you do, too. David Elliott’s winning, tongue-in-cheek text combines with Sam Zuppardi’s fresh, kid-friendly illustrations to show that life may be more about patience than perfection, and that focusing on the positive reaps its own rewards.
Praise
Zuppardi's loose, scribbly, deceptively child-styled pencil outlines vibrate with energy, and his colorful acrylic backgrounds feature uninhibitedly visible brush strokes, drips, splotches and lines made from pulling a tool through wet paint. The kids have enormous heads; their wide-open mouths are unabashedly colored in with gray pencil. —Kirkus Reviews
Loose drawings, full of scribbly pencil lines, busy up the surface and have an unfinished look: just as the boy is a work in progress, so is his world, exuberant with color and frenzied detail. ... In this era of striving for parental perfection, the idea that imperfections are no reason to despair is a pretty good theme for a picture book and should be appreciated by both reader and listener alike. —Booklist
David Elliott offers 4- to 8-year-olds a bit of emotional release with “Nobody’s Perfect,” a picture book whose jaunty tone and charitable theme are perfectly matched by Sam Zuppardi’s bright, explosive, scribbly illustrations. —The Wall Street Journal
Perfect for readers who like oversized cartoon drawings —Children's Bookwatch
Author
David Elliott says that his sister really does have a cat with one eye and that she was the inspiration for the cat in this story (the cat, not the sister).
View titles by David Elliott
