No, David, It's Not Good Enough

I've enjoyed reading a handful of David Shannon's books to my son over the years. Duck On a Bike, for example.) Shannon is probably best known for No, David and rightly so; it's a good through-the-kid's-eyes story about a boy who hears nothing but "NO!" Shannon's picture books are for the "lapsit" set through toddlers, in my opinion, so I was happy when my son (now 5 and learning to read) picked up the level 1 reading book Trucktown: UH-OH, MAX by Jon Scieszka and I saw that Shannon had developed the Trucktown characters. Unfortunately, the book was an utter disappointment, text and pictures alike. Is a thin story and simple cartoonish drawings acceptable if you're "just" trying to get a kid to recognize a few sight words? No, David (and and). Learning to read is a lot easier (and more fun) when the book's a good one.