Children's Books
School Mishaps
‘Kate and Nate Are Running Late!’ and ‘Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters’
From “Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters”
By PAMELA PAUL
Published: October 17, 2012
Getting to school should be a relatively straightforward process: get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, out the door. It is rarely that simple.
KATE AND NATE ARE RUNNING LATE!
By Kate Egan
Illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
36 pp. Feiwel & Friends. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6)
LESTER’S DREADFUL SWEATERS
Written and illustrated by K.G. Campbell
32 pp. Kids Can Press. $16.95. (Picture book; ages 5 to 9)
From “Kate and Nate Are Running Late!”
Some of the unfortunate complexities are dealt with in two new books. “Kate and Nate Are Running Late!,” a first picture book by Kate Egan, opens with an all-too-real scene. Mom is sleeping blissfully when she’s woken up, cannonball-style, by a small child on her bed. The cat lying there is understandably annoyed.
But look at the clock! Nate, his older sister, Maddie, and their mother will have to rush. And we just as quickly learn that this is not a unique scenario:
“It’s getting late,” announces Nate.
Kate rolls over, rubs her eyes.
She sits up straight. “Oh, that’s just great.
Not again!” Nate’s mother sighs.
Egan’s rhyming tale has some nice touches: rare is the picture book that features a single, working mother without making the story all about her. The mother is also recognizably and understandably imperfect. She sighs and becomes impatient. At one point, she’s “too tense to talk.” And all this is nothing compared to the colossal parental error that serves as the book’s surprise twist at the end (parents will no doubt see it coming).
How refreshing to find a story in which a parent makes a mistake without being turned into a goonish caricature. Children need to know grown-ups make mistakes too; it helps validate their own trial-and-error trajectory. And Egan makes this point felt in an organic way, without pointing it out didactically.
Yaccarino’s retro illustrations are charming and full of kick. They bear a welcome resemblance to the simple dot-eyed figures of Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman’s “Snow.” If only the weather here stayed consistent. In an early scene, the harried mother pours coffee and cat food in front of a door window revealing a sunny green setting outside. But the family is soon bundled up in winter gear and headed into a snowy landscape. Later, Nate runs through a mud puddle that feels rather like May, but when he lands it’s on a hard patch of ice. Granted, running late to school is a year-round occurrence, but the sequence here defies all possible metaphor.
Most children won’t notice as they nod along in amused recognition. And as unpleasant as the situation is, there are no tantrums or foot dragging. (If only that part were true to life too.)
“Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters” is another debut, written and illustrated by K.G. Campbell, with a dark little nod to Lemony Snicket, Sophie Blackall and Edward Gorey. Like “The Doubtful Guest,” the story kicks into gear when a guest shows up, if not uninvited then certainly unwelcome. It is little Lester’s Cousin Clara, and she likes to knit – specifically, sweaters for Lester. When he sees the fruits of her labor, his dismay is warranted:
“It was shriveled yet saggy. It had holes where it shouldn’t and none where it should. It was a less-than-pleasant yellow and smothered with purple pom poms. It was Dreadful.”
Then come the awful words from his father: “He’ll wear it to school.”
Campbell’s witty and wordy text occasionally goes over the top, as do his renditions of Clara’s knitwear. More than anything else, “Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters” plays out every child’s nightmare fantasy of showing up at school in The Wrong Thing. Here, the situation spins completely out of control, as Cousin Clara’s needles furiously click away no matter how Lester tries to get rid of her creations. At one point he effectively murders a sweater. For a certain kind of child, the tortured expressions on Lester’s face may simply prove too much.
There is no real lesson to be learned, though Lester eventually takes control of his situation and disposes of the despised Clara and her knitting basket. “I’m not sure if we’re even related,” Clara says upon her departure. Don’t many children feel that way about their presumed loved ones?