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Summary
Summary
A 2015 Caldecott Honor Book
With perfect pacing, the multi-award-winning, New York Times best-selling team of Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen dig down for a deadpan tale full of visual humor.
Sam and Dave are on a mission. A mission to find something spectacular. So they dig a hole. And they keep digging. And they find . . . nothing. Yet the day turns out to be pretty spectacular after all. Attentive readers will be rewarded with a rare treasure in this witty story of looking for the extraordinary -- and finding it in a manner you'd never expect.
Author Notes
Mac Barnett is a New York Times bestselling author of books for children. His picture book Extra Yarn won a 2013 Caldecott Honor and the 2012 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. He also writes the Brixton Brothers series of mystery novels. He co-wrote Battle Bunny with Jon Scieszka which was a New York Times bestseller. Barnettt's book, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, illustrated by Jon Klassen, made the New York Times bestseller list in October 2014. It also won an E.B. White Read-Aloud Award 2015 in the picture book category.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Starred Review. Barnetts comic voice is at its driest as he recounts that quintessential American childhood activity-the digging of the giant hole. His deadpan prose mimics the declarative sentences of early readers: On Monday Sam and Dave dug a hole. When should we stop digging? asked Sam. We are on a mission, said Dave. Klassens boys, with identical poker faces and glassy expressions, hold their shovels American Gothic-style, considering their next move. Cross-sections of earth show them further and further down, and comic tension erupts as readers see gigantic diamonds buried at intervals underground while Sam and Dave tunnel on, missing every one: So Dave went one way, and Sam went another. But they didnt find anything spectacular. Meanwhile, their dogs pursuit of a small bone leads further downward, possibly through the Earth and out the other side. They land in their own backyard again-or do they? Barnett and Klassen (Extra Yarn) dangle the prospect of fantastic subterranean treasure before readers, but leave them with an even greater reward: a tantalizingly creepy and open-ended conclusion. Ages 4-8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
This adventure starts innocently enough: "On Monday Sam and Dave dug a hole." The boys (indistinguishable save the color of their hats and Sam's ever-present backpack) are fueled by chocolate milk, animal cookies, and a desire to find "something spectacular." Alas, Sam and Dave unearth nothing, coming close to -- but just missing -- the precious gems that dot the subterranean landscape, and oblivious all the while. Eventually the chums stop for a rest, whereupon their canine companion, digging for a bone, inadvertently causes a rupture in the dirt floor underground that leaves the explorers falling "down, down, down," only to land in what appears to be their own yard. But upon closer inspection, this house isn't quite the same as before; a number of subtle differences go undetected by the hapless duo, but observant viewers will certainly take note. Barnett's well-chosen words ("Sam and Dave ran out of chocolate milk. / But they kept digging. / They shared the last animal cookie. / But they kept digging") and plentiful white space support readers. Klassen's cross-section illustrations provide a mole's-eye view of the underground proceedings, extending the spare text with visual humor. As in his previous books, Klassen shows an uncanny knack for conveying meaning with the subtlest of eye movements. How fitting that the wordless final spread features a knowing look between the dog and a cat familiar to Klassen fans; all that's missing from the trippy conclusion is the theme music from The Twilight Zone. Mind-blowing in the best possible way. sam bloom (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Sam and Dave, each wearing baseball caps and wielding long-handled shovels, set out to dig a hole. How big a hole? We won't stop digging until we find something spectacular, says Dave, so off they go, digging ever deeper while their little dog follows their progress. A cross section of their dig reveals that Sam and Dave come awfully close to their prize, but they keep digging and missing treasure until they decide to take a nap, during which they tumble right through the earth. Their landing sets them right back on safe ground though, and that, of course, is pretty spectacular. Klassen's pebbly, earth-toned, colored-pencil and digital illustrations of Sam and Dave's dig are exaggerated to comic effect, especially when coupled with Barnett's dry, simple text. Subtle visual clues (the final absence of dirt on Sam's and Dave's clothes; a closing house that's just slightly different from the opening one) suggest there's more to the story than meets the eye, and canny little ones will likely be delighted by the beguiling ending. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: From I Want My Hat Back (2011) to The Dark (2013), New York Times best-selling Klassen's titles have made him a star of the moment.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2014 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Two brothers are determined to find "something spectacular" in this clever second collaboration between Barnett and Klassen (after "Extra Yarn," a Caldecott Honor book). As Sam and Dave apply shovels to dirt, their hole grows and grows, but their goal keeps eluding them. The prose is deadpan; the joke's all in Klassen's winsomely smudgy illustrations: There are gigantic jewels buried everywhere, except in the paths the boys dig. The dog, meanwhile, is after a prize of his own. HUG MACHINE Written and illustrated by Scott Campbell. 32 pp. Atheneum. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 2 to 8) The unnamed little boy who narrates this sweet romp has declared himself the Hug Machine. Look out! No one and nothing is safe from his embrace - not his family, not a policeman, not even the ice cream truck and a porcupine. As his hug-objects get more and more unlikely, a pizza break is called for. Campbell keeps the comic effect going, and his watercolor illustrations of the big-eyed, long-armed boy have a rough-hewn charm that makes all the hugging seem anything but mushy. CATCH THAT COOKIE! By Hallie Durand. Illustrated by David Small. 32 pp. Dial. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6) Marshall, a serious-minded preschooler, knows that ginger-bread men "can't run for real." But when his class bakes a batch, they disappear from the oven, leaving a rhyming clue to their whereabouts. A treasure hunt ensues, with more clues ("You thought we might be slow 'cause we're only made of dough"); the little guys end up asleep in a doll bed - for the moment. In Small's spirited illustrations, the children, their teacher and the "G-men" all burst with spice and verve. DOJO DAYCARE Written and illustrated by Chris Tougas. 32 pp. Owlkids. $16.95. (Picture book; ages 3 to 7) Day care is a dojo, its little citizens black-outfitted, high-kicking ninjas who run riot over the place in this fast-paced rhyming tale: "No one listens to the Master./Story time is a disaster," Tougas writes. It takes "one little voice" to remind the ninjas about "honor, kindness and respect," and all that madcap energy is put to use tidying up. Back home, where parents and even pets are swathed in ninja black, too, the children sign off with an amusing and appropriate "back-flip into comfy beds." TELEPHONE By Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Jen Corace. 32 pp. Chronicle. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) "Tell Peter: Fly home for dinner." That's the opening of this raucous avian take on the old-school children's game, in which the action takes place, naturally, on a telephone wire. On each page, a new bird fumbles the message, which gets increasingly alarming: "Put your wet socks in the dryer," is one thing, "Something smells like fire!" quite another. Co race's illustrations are both delicate and lively, bringing humor and personality to the worlds of the humans, below, and the birds, above. ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-The winning picture book team that created Extra Yarn (HarperCollins, 2012) is back together in this understated, humorous, and charmingly perplexing tale. Sam and Dave, who are either identical twin boys or friends who look astonishingly alike and share a sartorial sensibility, set out to dig a hole in the hopes of finding "something spectacular." With shovels in hand, the boys (with an eager terrier looking on) begin to tunnel into the soil, but they just can't seem to find anything of interest. What works spectacularly is the clever play between words and pictures. As in Klassen's This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick, 2012), readers are in on a joke to which the characters are oblivious. Namely, that each time the boys change direction, they narrowly miss discovering increasingly enormous jewels hidden in the earth. The book progresses with each verso showing the boys' progress, while the recto features simple text, mostly dialogue between the practical but unlucky explorers. About halfway through, a spread reveals a diamond so large it can barely be contained on the page; it dwarfs the two boys and their trusty canine companion-but all for naught, since they decide to dig in a different direction. Exhausted and covered from head to toe in dirt, Sam and Dave decide to take a rest. Klassen's use of muted earth tones and uncomplicated compositions is paired well with Barnett's deadpan humor. As they nap in their hole, the dog continues to dig.until suddenly the trio is falling; they soon land in a place that looks an awful lot like home. Small details reveal that this house and its inhabitants are ever so slightly changed. Are they dreaming? On the other side of the world? In a different dimension? Readers will have to puzzle that one out for themselves.-Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
When Sam and Dave dig a hole, readers get "something spectacular." The boys, on the other hand, do not. Their quest to find the spectacular brings them painfully and humorously close to buried jewels as they spade their way into the ground, accompanied by an intrepid canine companion. Readers occupy a superior position as cross-section illustrations reveal those jewels buried just out of the shovels' reach. Each time they near one, the increasingly grubby boys maddeningly change course. On they dig, tunneling in different directions, and each effort reveals (to readers) yet larger jewels evading them. Exhausted, they fall asleep, but the dog digs after a bone it senses below. In an unexpected turn, the ground gives way to nothingness, and the trio falls through empty space "until they landed in the soft dirt." At first glance, it seems they've ended up where they began: A small tree stands on the recto, and a house with a porch is on the verso, as before. But careful readers will notice that the tree here bears pears, while the tree at the story's start had apples. Other differing details (a weathervane duck instead of a chicken; a blue flower instead of a red one; a blue cat collar instead of a red) suggest that they've unwittingly fallen into another dimension. Poor Sam and Dave. Lucky readers. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.