Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World

by Mac Barnett, Dan Santat (Illustrator)

Overview

Two major bestselling and award-winning picture book creators combine forces in this kid's eye account of a science fair gone horribly and hilariously awry!

Some kids are too smart for their own good...and maybe for everybody else's good. When an overly ambitious little girl builds a humongous robot for her science fair, she fully expects to win first place. What she doesn't expect is the chaos that follows! "I probably shouldn't have given it a superclaw, or a laser eye, or the power to control dogs' minds," she laments. Kids, don't try this at home!

"A must-have." —Kirkus Reviews

Don't miss the sequel, Oh No! Not Again!: (Or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423123125
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	06/01/2010
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	334,982
Product dimensions:	11.86(w) x 10.34(h) x 0.34(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Mac Barnett is the author of many books for children, including Extra Yarn, illustrated by John Klassen, a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse, a New York Times bestseller; Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Other titles include The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown, Chloe and the Lion, and Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem. He is the co-author, with Jory John, of the New York Times bestselling series The Terrible Two. Mac lives in California.

Dan Santat is the Caldecott Medal-winning and New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, Are We There Yet?, After the Fall, as well as the illustrator including Drawn Together and Lift by Minh Lê, The Alphabet's Alphabet by Chris Harris, and Crankenstein by Samantha Berger. Dan lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, and various pets. His website is dantat.com.

Editorial Reviews

Santat and Barnett collaborate seamlessly on this slapstick adventure about a pigtailed, bespectacled science fair entrant trying unsuccessfully to control her prize-winning robot. "I probably shouldn't have given it a superclaw, or a laser eye, or the power to control dogs' minds," she sighs as she watches the metallic monster storm across her city. Barnett's (Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem) telegraphic text packs wicked humor into economical, comic book–style lines, while Santat's (Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo) skylines pay homage to old monster movies. In one scene, the robot looms Godzilla-like, railroad car in hand, over an urban Japantown; another sequence is viewed through its fish-eye lens, with crosshairs trained on its creator. When the robot reacts with fury to the girl's futile attempts to stop it ("I should have given it ears," she laments), the girl and text become blurred, testimony to the impact of its stomps. Blueprints for the robot and the genetically altered toad she deploys to defeat it are included on the endpapers, but, kids, don't try this at home! Ages 3–7. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Santat's brilliantly hued digital illustrations are the perfect foil for Barnett's almost-wordless tale of a science project gone awry.... In a world where technology progresses rapidly and consequences are often not anticipated, this lesson in 'I should have' is subtle, never preachy and always action-packed. A must-have."—Kirkus Reviews

"This graphic novel in picture-book form will appeal to the Captain Underpants set.... The dialogue balloons, dramatic perspectives, and graphic style bring a true comic-book sensibility to this funny story that's loaded with child appeal."—School Library Journal

"Santat and Barnett collaborate seamlessly on this slapstick adventure about a pigtailed, bespectacled science fair entrant trying unsuccessfully to control her prize-winning robot."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Gr 3—This graphic novel in picture-book form will appeal to the "Captain Underpants" set. A young girl builds a robot for the science fair, but things get crazy when it goes on a rampage through the city. That's when she realizes that she forgot to give it any skills that would allow it to understand her commands to stop. She creates a giant toad monster to fight the robot—but the toad has its own problems. Santat's Photoshop illustrations propel the story far more than the text, and the dialogue balloons, dramatic perspectives, and graphic style bring a true comic-book sensibility to this funny story that's loaded with child appeal.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD

School Library Journal

Santat's brilliantly hued digital illustrations are the perfect foil for Barnett's almost-wordless tale of a science project gone awry. When the bespectacled heroine surveys the post-apocalyptic opening scene, the speech bubbles tell the tale-"Oh no . . . oh man . . . I knew it." Like a 1950s B-movie, complete with the widescreen boundaries, the drama of her prize-winning robot stalking New York is one part cautionary tale and many parts over-the-top humor. When she screams, "HEY, ROBOT! KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!" the page turn shows her shaky, understated realization, "I should have given it ears." In a world where technology progresses rapidly and consequences are often not anticipated, this lesson in "I should have" is subtle, never preachy and always action-packed. Comic-book, picture-book and movie styles come together in a well-designed package that includes a movie poster on the reverse side of the jacket, an old-time computation book as the inside cover and detailed scientific drawings on the endpapers. The Japanese subtitles and translations on the pages before the title add to the fun. The only thing missing are the 3-D glasses! A must-have. (Picture book. 4-10)

Kirkus Reviews