| Title | : | A Perfectly Messed-Up Story |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0316222585 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780316222587 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 40 |
| Publication | : | First published October 7, 2014 |
A Perfectly Messed-Up Story Reviews
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* * * Read & Reviewed by Me and My Niece Emma * * *
More like...A Perfectly AWESOME Story! I can't believe Emma didn't want to get this. When I found it at the library and suggested it, she gave me her scrunched up, "Whaaat? Really? I don't know..." face, but I persevered. Something about A Perfectly Messed-Up Story had her name written all over it.
VINDICATION! She loved it! Granted, I had to "play it big" in my reading, going over the top as the main character, Louie, a Casper-pale midget with a bad comb-over sporting a yellow onesie, who attempts to tell his perfect story only to be foiled by huge globs of peanut butter and jelly and the like dropping on to the page from some imagined reader above.
"Once upon a time, little Louie went skipping merrily along," begins the story which worryingly continues on in such a staid manner, threatening to bore young readers/listeners. But then on page three, like most kids books do, the author throws in his monkeywrench, and soon enough Louie is being bombarded by all manner of sticky messes, impertinent fingerprints, and various sorts of stains. He becomes so exasperated that he gives up, but just when it seems there's no hope for this book, the story begins again, Louie makes it all the way through without a single droplet of PB&J, and all is right with the world!
Emma's favorite part, and mine too, was when the peanut butter plopped right on Louie's face. Many a giggle ensued!
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Pour little Louie! His story keeps getting messed up. Or does it? Cute for little ones to read. A nice change from traditional stories. 4****
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Despite being a picture book, this was so uplifting, and was just what I needed.
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A laugh-out-loud funny story about a picture book protagonist who is having a tantrum over the fact that the owner of this particular book doesn't appear to take very good care of his belongings. It's sort of the meta-picture-book version of "And this is why we can't have nice things!" :)
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Would it be over the top to say that Louie and I are connected across the astral plane? Perhaps. I will say that a picture book hasn't hit me in the feels like this since
Baby Bear.
To begin with, consider the fourth wall obliterated. Personally, I'm not a fan of photoshopping real-world objects over ink/paint illustrations, but here it actually works and doesn't just look creepy! (I'm looking at you
17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore--that one still gives me the heebie-jeebies.) According to the "About This (Messed-Up) Book" blurb Jeff Schultz takes responsibility for the messes, and the rest is done in pen & ink, brush pen, crayon, and watercolor.
It definitely has that Patrick McDonnell flair, a combination of whimsy and quirkiness, and (un)surprisingly potent emotional content (one time, on the info desk
Me...Jane made me cry.)
A Perfectly Messed-Up Story is no different. My favorite little flourishes are the "This book belongs to Me" on the front pages, and opening the story up with "Once upon a time," and going from the watercolor scenery to the white, blank background is a striking visual cue. Along with a good dose of humor, we get the idea that even though life isn't always a fairy-tale, we're all still here and that's awesome. -
A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell gets well….a little messy. :D
Between bloops and blobs of peanut butter & jelly, drink rings and more--Louie tries to tell us his tale. A tale that shows readers of all ages that messes and mistakes happen in fiction and life. Life gets messy. It's not perfect. That’s what makes it interesting. The story, our story must go on! Through the stickiness! Through the drops, stains, and smears! Work through and with the messes in life.
My nephew absolutely loved this story. Louie’s reaction to the messes and attempted clean-ups made him laugh and laugh. A very fun read that pulls kids into the story and mess.
A joy to read out loud. Highly recommended. -
This is Louie's story, so he gets upset when the book encounters all sorts of messes and spills. But Louie grows to realize that he loves his story, messes and all. This humorous meta-fictional picture book reminds readers, regardless of age, to embrace all the messes in our own stories. The illustrations extend the text extremely well. The peanut butter and jelly look quite real, as do the fingerprints and paper towel.
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It has been a tradition to read the Library Dragon by Deedy every year at the start of the school year and I am adding the Perfectly Messed-Up Story for the second week. The students were amazed by how real the peanut butter and jelly looked and they loved Louie. We talked about people with peanut allergies and how someone might get sick from a dirty book, and how none of us like to check out a book that has been damaged. It was a great book to lead into a lesson about book care. All of my students loved it K-5.
Even the 5th graders squeal when I get this book out. The younger students fill in a color wheel of emotion. The older students do a drawing activity where they start with a blank paper and I ask them to make a triangle. Then they pass the paper to another student who makes an oval. They pass again and then make two circles. Pass again and at this step they take what they got and make a character out of it. Meanwhile we talk about Louie's feelings in the book.
But before reading, I remind the students that the book has three voices: the narrator, Louie, and then theirs (the reader). I go into more detail with older students. The magic of reading: their voice is their knowledge interacting with the author's words. Mind Blowing.
10/2020 Last March as students left school because of the pandemic, this book got lost. We lost about $135 in books in just one classroom. I hope it turns up. But because of remote teaching, my funds were withheld until about the time that I would usually read this. So as soon as I could I ordered it and I just recorded myself reading it yesterday. I will add it to a slide with the book Ruby finds a Worry by Percival but I will label it surprise bonus story. -
Every children's librarian and media specialist needs this book. It may become my new go-to read-aloud for library tours. Louie is enjoying his story in the book until he encounters a blob. Sniff sniff, lick lick - it's jelly?! And then a blob of peanut butter. And fingerprints and orange juice.
"We need to show some respect here. Books are important." Louie says.
(Can I get an amen?)
In the end, Louie realizes his story is still a pretty good story, "messes and all" and the reader is still reading.
Good one! -
So great! Teaching kids to take care of books? This should be your go-to read-aloud.
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Cute.
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You gonna love it..
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One word: inspirational.
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Very entertaining book. Didn't go as I expected but has fun. Lauren wants to own this book even.
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خیلی خوب بود 😊
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A perfectly messed up story by Patrick McDonell is a picture book about the narrator attempting to read a story about a little boy named Louie, but as the story keeps going Louie says that it is his story as he tried to attempt to read it, but a jelly stain, peanut butter, finger print and other messes got on the book and it makes Louie feel sad.
My impression of this picture book is that I thought it was humorous and enjoyable to read because of all the silly little things that happen as the story continues, with the jelly stain on there and peanut butter they all look so realistic and Louie licking the jelly is just hilarious, I would definitely read this story to my students in class.
The protagonist in this story is Louie we can see his personality traits and how he is feeling from the beginning to end of the story. We can see that he starts of happy in the story because he is happily walking along singing, in the illustrations he has a happy face on. Throughout we can see he gets upset by the jelly and peanut butter stains and fingerprints. We can see when he is angry when he says “Orange juice! ARG! My story is getting all messed up” with his hands in the air and his face frowning and mouth open. We can also see when he is sad when he says “I’m in a messy old book that will end up in a garage sale, a book NO one will ever want to read or love.” The illustrations also shows he is sad because he is sitting down with his head hiding behind his arms crouched down.
The point of view in this story is 3rd person and first person. Third person point of view because it starts off with the narrator saying “Once upon a time, little Louie went skipping merrily along.” And “Tra-la-la-la he sang.” I say first person point of view also because then as the story goes along little Louie has talking bubbles and him saying “Who would eat a jelly sandwich reading my book?” and “My story is getting all messed up.”
A visual element I noticed is the different text, it has the traditional once upon a time starting, but then it has the talking bubbles like a comic would have. As the story continues there is also a lot of white space where only the character Louie and his talking bubbles are present. I believe the author did this so we can see the different metafiction strategies being used for being a post-modern picture book.
Another visual element I noticed is that the illustrations some look like a very traditional illustration a traditional tale would have but then as it went along the illustrations had very realistic things like the jelly, peanut butter, fingerprints and orange juice look very realistic.
This is a post-modern picture book because it has the different traits one would have such as different points of views and different types of illustrations, and the character Louie is very aware that someone is causing all those different stains on his story. -
Sometimes McDonnell hits it exactly right--I can't recommend
The Monsters' Monster and
Me...Jane enough. And sometimes, like with his execrable comic strip Mutts, he comes off as treacly and forgettable. This one falls into the latter category for me.
Worse, it feels like trend-chasing. A Perfectly Messed-Up Story basically reads as "Patrick McDonnell writes a meta-fiction picture book about how you can do anything!!!" There are better meta-fiction picture books, and there are better Patrick McDonnell books. Skip this one. -
ایدهش جالب بود برام. منو به خودم آورد که چهقدر ازشهام از بین رفته و همهچیز بیارزش شده، نمیدونم متاسفانه یا خو��بختانه.
مثلن ماجرای سمفونی مردگانم. وقتی روکش پلاستیکیش داشت جدا میشد فقط حرص میخوردم. بعدن یه بار نذاشتن ببرمش سر جلسهی امتحان و گذاشتمش دم در سالن امتحانات، وقتی برگشتم دیدم گوشهی جلدش پاره شده، باید میرفتم دوربینها رو چک میکردم ببینم کار کدوم مادرصلواتیای بود، کثافت. بعد از یه مدت وقتی پارگیش رو نگاه میکردم یه جورایی افتخار میکردم، میگفتم هرکی ببیندش میفهمه باهاش زندگی کردم و مثل خودم زخمی شده. الان که نگاهش میکنم، نمیدونم، هیچ معنایی برام نداره (نمیدونم این جمله همون بار معنایی "ایت میکز می نو سنس" رو داره یا نه😅.).
**راستی اون یکی که بالاخره پسندیدم رو هم علامت نزدم، نگردین لطفن😁. -
Little Louie's story keeps getting messed up, and he's not happy about it! What's the point of telling his tale if the reader can not control themselves enough to keep the book clean? But when he stops and takes a deep breath, he realizes that everything is actually just fine, and his story is a good one.
In this interactive and engaging read-aloud, bestselling author and award-winning artist Patrick McDonnell creates a funny, engaging, story about embracing life's messes.
The kids really did think someone totally messed up the book. Might be good to show at the first of the year about why we don't read books and eat at the same time! -
My 4 year old grandson brought this book to me to read one night. We giggled through it, and then read it again giggling even more as jelly and crunchy peanut butter were plopped on the book pages along with fingerprints, orange juice, and crayons. As a librarian it speaks to me, helping to remind kids to love their books and treat them well. But as an adult it reminds me that life is messy, yet despite the challenges, we are still here writing our story and reading books. It truly was fun for me to read this aloud to my grandkids, and then later out loud to a group of adults.
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Fellow children's and school librarians, gather 'round ! Here we have a fresh and modern (and messy, don't forget messy!) book about bookcare fit to stand alongside the classic go to,
Mr. Wiggle's Book! Read this just in time for the start of the new school year and looking forward to sharing it during library orientation in September. Likely to become a permanent fixture in my library bag of tricks. -
It's in those what-are-the-chances-of-this-happening minutes we can learn and flourish. Patrick McDonnell, creator of The Monster's Monster and Caldecott Honor winner of Me...Jane has written and illustrated a new title, A Perfectly MESSED-UP Story (Little, Brown and Company), destined to generate quite a bit of conversation. It's a joyous example of life's little accidental incidents and how one can choose to respond.
My full recommendation:
http://bit.ly/1CBaKav -
This one really breaks the fourth wall. Not only is the protagonist (Louie) aware that he's in a story, the "reader" is messing things up for him! First a jelly stain, then peanut butter.... what's next for this poor little guy?
I loved the use of mixed media here. And I truly also liked the illustration style itself. It reminded me of Walt Disney's early illustrations of Steamboat Willie. -
What? No coffee stains? What does Patrick McDonnell have against coffee anyway? That he can't, you know, include at least one coffee stain. At least little Louie didn't fall in the mud or perform a ding-dong ditch. If he had the story wouldn't be perfectly messed up, I guess. There's something to be said about being just the right amount of messed up. You know, not like way over the top messed up (Patrick Bateman) just a little messed up (Kilgore Trout). Anyhoo, I'm rambling now. Go read.
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You know you have a great book in your hands when your 4-year old BEGS you to read it again and again. "A Perfectly Messed-Up Story" is one of those addictively hysterical books for kids. Between the PB&J, fingerprints, marker (or is it crayon?), and the orange juice, Louie's minor disdain for messyness shines through. I loved this book and will most certainly recommend it to all of my friends with young kids.
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Petition to switch from "Oh the Places You'll Go" to "A Perfectly Messed-Up Story" as the standard graduation gift. This excellent book would be totally at home in a preschool or toddler storytime, but anyone of any age will see the humor. And any adults or teens who struggle with anxiety or depression will find it especially comforting.
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From the creator of the Mutts comic strip comes this gentle reminder for us book snobs and neat freaks (and, yeah, kids too) that it's ok if things (including books) get a little messy, and it's alright if things don't go according to plan.
