The Shindig Is Coming!
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
From award-winning children’s book author-illustrator Charise Mericle Harper comes a one-of-a-kind chapter book perfect for fans of the Narwhal and Jelly and Kondo & Kezumi series.
After receiving an urgent mountaintop message from the blue jay, Mouse proclaims to all the woodland creatures: “The Shindig is coming!” The entire forest is soon abuzz with everyone asking the same question: What is a shindig? Meetings are held. Assumptions are made. Honey cake is served. Finally Bear declares the answer. A shindig is a party, which is just like a meeting only fun. Problem solved! . . . Or is it?
When the blue jay finally reaches the party-prepping crew, all that pep turns to panic. The blue jay's message wasn’t an invitation. It was a warning! THE SHINDIG IS COMING! Hooves, claws, and paws scatter when the mysterious forest visitors arrive at last. And opossum faints. Again.
Find out what Mouse heard, what Bear said, and what Opossum missed in The Shindig Is Coming! Charise Mericle Harper’s hilarious storytelling and dynamic line art are on full display in this laugh-out-loud original chapter book for readers ages 7 and up.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shorts-wearing Mouse has big—potentially alarming—news for her fellow woodland inhabitants: there's going to be a shindig in the forest. The announcement sends fearful Opossum into the first of many preemptive swoons and reveals that no one knows what a shindig is, though there is speculation that it might involve a "GIANT KITTY versus SWAMPY GREEN THING." Overbearing, dictionary-toting Bear enters the fray, and informs the group that "SHINDIG is just a fancy word for PARTY," which impels Mouse and her peers to rejoice ("A party is like a meeting, but it's fun"). When a blue jay flies by to repeat the titular phrase—to which Bear roars, "We got the invitation!"—the bird delivers another faint-worthy missive: "That wasn't an invitation... that was a warning." Though the narrative arc often plays second fiddle to over-the-top characterizations and sly zingers about finicky group dynamics and oversize egos, Mericle (I Cannot Draw a Bicycle) packs the pages with mischievous typography and graphic elements that flirt with midcentury modern design, folk art, and psychedelia, making for a freewheeling chapter book party. Ages 6–10.
