Not a Stick

Antoinette Portis again captures the thrill of when pretend feels so real that it becomes real. With a stick in hand, the options are endless—whether it's conducting an orchestra, painting a masterpiece, or slaying a dragon—give a child a stick and let imagination take over and the magic begin.

"Where Portis's Not a Box featured a plain brown wrapper, this winning sequel proffers a faux wood-grain cover. And where the earlier title featured a deceptively boxlike, hollow rectangle (which an inventive rabbit treated as a rocket or a race car), this follow-up introduces a little pig holding a long, forked object. An unenlightened voice offstage suggests, 'Hey, be careful with that stick.' The pig corrects the false impression ('It's not a stick') and demonstrates the item's many uses. Portis traces pig and plaything in a heavy black line on negative space, then superimposes jaunty blue line drawings that act as overlays to reveal the pig's imaginings. The pig stands astride the stick, and a rearing horse shape appears. The pig holds the stick at its midpoint and it becomes a paintbrush, aiming toward Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night. Where the offstage warnings appear in white italics on a gray ground, implying a drab rejection of fantasy ('Watch where you point that stick'), the pig's statements are printed against a deep and dreamy blue. Portis repeats her previous formula down to the conclusion, where the pig calls the DIY toy 'my Not-a-Stick!,' once again appealing to those who think outside the box. Ages up to 6." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In this follow-up to the "New York Times" bestseller "Not a Box," a plain old stick leads to new worlds of play and wonder, where nothing is as ordinary as it seems. Full color.

Antoinette Portis is the author and illustrator of theNew York Timesbestselling Not a Boxand Not a Stick. She lives in Southern California. This is her third children’s book.