As the rabbit-like child keeps informing the off-screen questioner, this is NOT a box. Rather than calling into question the distinctions between image and reality, however, Not a Box is a charming juxtaposition of the prosaic (and one presumes, adult) perspective, when confronted with a cardboard box, and the creative response of the child, when confronted with the same. The title of this picture-book for very young children reminds me of Magritte's famous painting, La trahison des images (The Treachery of Images), in which an image of a pipe is labeled: 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' ('This is not a pipe'). This book will make you smile and hopefully reignite some of that wonder in the adult mind.Īnybody around here just purchase a new refrigerator? How about I take that box off your hands. Turn the page and bright yellow and red wash over the spread as bunny's imaginative play is revealed. The unimaginative narrator's questions (e.g., 'Why are you sitting in a box?') are typed on the left page while a simple black-outlined bunny figure literally assumes the position on the otherwise blank right side.

The simplicity continues inside the book, with respect to both text and drawings. (Hey, Benjamin Moore, there's a new paint color for you: ooh, Box Brown.) The title appears in simple red letters along with a 'NET WT.' stat on the front and a 'THIS SIDE UP' on the sparse back cover.

This picture book is an ode to the lowly cardboard box, cleverly designed with that familiar drab brown for the cover. Get your hands on a large cardboard box-large enough to climb in-and watch the fun begin. But I've overlooked an even more popular classic, one that doesn't require navigating your way through PlayStation gadgetry and Transformer movie tie-ins at the local Toys 'R' Us. In the toy department, I stock the classics: Slinky, Magic 8-Ball, wind-up critters. When children walk into my principal's office, they notice two things: (1) kids' books, and (2) toys.

Not a box portis