{"id":13748,"date":"2014-08-11T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=13748"},"modified":"2014-08-11T08:00:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T12:00:09","slug":"this-orq-he-best-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=13748","title":{"rendered":"this ORQ. (he great book!)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/This-Orq-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-13749\" alt=\"This Orq\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/This-Orq-2.jpg\" width=\"326\" height=\"420\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">There are hundreds, if not thousands, of picture books published every year, and many of them are good. Some of them are great. And a few of them hit the picture book sweet spot jackpot by managing to provide: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">a perfect marriage of text and art<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">phenomenal kid appeal<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">read-aloud deliciousness<\/span><\/li>\n<li>art that invites poring over<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">new discoveries in repeated readings<\/span><\/li>\n<li>heart, joy, playfulness, suspense, reassurance, and humor<\/li>\n<li>and, yes, jokes for the grownups, too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/site.booksite.com\/7087\/showdetail\/?isbn=9781620915219\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">this ORQ. (he cave boy.) <\/em><\/strong><\/a>by David Elliott, illustrated by Lori Nichols (Boyds Mills Press) <span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">hits the jackpot with its hilarious (and wry) caveman-speak text, huge heart, and utterly\u00a0<\/span>lovable<span style=\"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.714285714;\">\u00a0illustrations by newcomer Lori Nichols (who also wowed us earlier this year with her debut picture book, <em>Maple, <\/em>published by\u00a0Penguin\/Nancy Paulsen).\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nOrq, a lively little cave boy, has a pet woolly mammoth named Woma, whom he <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">LOVES<\/span><\/strong>. Yes, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>LOVES<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in big, unabashed giant red letters and hearts that convey that unconditional mutual adoration children and their pets share with each other. As Woma grows, however, Orq&#8217;s mom becomes less of a fan. &#8220;Woma shed. Woma smell. Woma not house-trained.&#8221; To Orq&#8217;s dismay, mom orders Woma out of the cave. So Orq decides to teach Woma tricks to woo his mama, but Woma&#8217;s oversized attempts to speak, fetch, and roll over go comically awry. One day, Orq is playing hunter when a real sabertooth tiger appears in the brush. After an alarming moment, Woma rushes to protect Orq, and &#8220;Sabertooth reconsider.&#8221; Woma is a hero to Orq&#8217;s mama, who now\u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">LOVES<\/span><\/strong> Woma, too (I absolutely love that Nichols distinguishes between Orq&#8217;s love \u2013 represented with those big fierce red letters \u2013 and Mother&#8217;s love \u2013 big pink ones. Mother&#8217;s regard is earnest but her belated turnaround means she does not quite earn big red love status).<br \/>\nElliott&#8217;s economy of language is fabulous, as is his choice selection of a few sophisticated words to wryly shake up the simple cave-speak. Nichols&#8217; art manages to be both charming and lively, sweet and mischievous. It will resonate with any child who has ever loved a pet with his whole heart, and it will hook any child who&#8217;s ever loved the ebullient abandon of well-intentioned but accident-prone characters.<br \/>\n<em>ORQ<\/em> is the new picture book I read aloud to customers every chance I get. I think it&#8217;s going to be a huge hit at storytimes in bookstores, schools, and libraries. And I&#8217;m pretty sure every family I hand it to will read this one again and again and again, adopt Orq-speak in their own households, and refer to it with their own inside jokes. &#8220;Orq&#8217;s mother not convinced,&#8221; is a natural line to adapt to family events, as is &#8220;Sabertooth reconsider.&#8221;<br \/>\nI predict big things for this little book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the top contenders for Elizabeth&#8217;s favorite picture book of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}