Named a 1999 Caldecott Medal honor book. When author and artist David Shannon was five years old, he wrote a semi-autobiographical story of a little kid who broke all his mother's rules. He chewed with his mouth open, jumped on the furniture, and he broke his mother's vase. As a result, all David ever heard his mother say was "No, David!"
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
In this boisterous exploration of naughtiness, Shannon (How Georgie Radbourne Saved Baseball) lobs one visual zinger after another as David, a little dickens, careens from one unruly deed to the next--coloring on the walls, tracking mud all over the carpet, jumping on the bed in red cowboy boots. Meanwhile, all those timeless childhood phrases echo in the background: "Come back here!" "Be quiet!" "Not in the house, David!" and most vigorously--"No!" Shannon's pen whisks over the double-page spreads in a flurry of energy, as he gains perspective on an image of a bare-bottomed David cavorting down a quiet suburban street or closes in on the boy's face as he inserts a finger into his triangle nose, his button eyes tense with concentration, and perfectly round head looming larger than the pages. While Shannon gives David the purposeful look of a child's crude drawings, his background settings (the kitchen sideboard, a toy-littered TV room) are fully rendered, effectively evoking the boy's sense of displacement. This dead-on take on childhood shenanigans ends on a high note, with the penitent David (he broke a vase with a baseball) enfolded in his mother's arms as she assures him, "Yes, David, I love you." Readers won't be able to resist taking a walk on the wild side with this little rascal, and may only secretly acknowledge how much of him they recognize in themselves.
Children's Literature - Jeanne K. Pettenati
Poor David. He is constantly doing things that elicit stern words of discipline. He hears "No, David!" when he walks over white carpet with muddy shoes and when he climbs a chair to reach the cookie jar. His mother tells him to "Settle down!" when he gets too rowdy in his room, and to "Come back here!" when he runs up the street without clothes on. Surely, this is how life must seem to a spirited child-always being scolded and always being held back. But David's mother does love him. The book ends on a high note with a mother's reassuring hug and words of love and a smile on David's face.
School Library Journal
In this ode to bad and boisterous little boys, a resourceful and inventive young David wreaks havoc in every room of the house and even runs down the road nude. He reaches too far for the cookie jar, tracks in too much dirt, bangs too loudly, and creates a potato head with string-bean arms and chicken legs instead of eating his dinner. He even sticks his finger up his nose farther than anatomy would seem to allow. The text consists mostly of his mother saying, "No, David," or variations thereof. Finally, a broken vase leads to banishment to a chair in the corner and a tear on the cheek, which leads to a motherly hug and the best affirmation of all--"Yes, David...I love you!" The vigorous and wacky full-color acrylic paintings portray a lively and imaginative boy whose stick-figure body conveys every nuance of anger, exuberance, defiance, and, best of all, the reassurance of his mother's love. This book is perfect for reading aloud. Children will relish the deliciously bad behavior and the warm and cuddly conclusion. -- Susan Pine, New York Public Library
Newsweek
Kids won't be able to resist the rough-and-tumble David['s]...monster talent for getting into trouble.
M.P. Dunleavey
...[A] hilarious compilation of toddlers' wrongdoings....Parents might weary of the chastising tone....Children...will recognize immediately that they have found a kindred spirit. -- The New York Times Book Review
Kirkus Reviews
This autobiographical (according to the author's note) story from Shannon (A Bad Case of Stripes) features a young hellion, also named David, who is forever at the receiving end of a sharp "No!" Among his prime escapades: overreaching for the cookie jar, excavating his nose, tracking mud on the carpet, pounding pots, playing with food, making a naked escape from the houseþclassics all. "That's enough," his mother shouts, and other familiar adult admonishments show up as wellþbe quiet, come back here, go to your room, settle down, stop that this instant, not in the house. This last comes as David prepares for a little indoor hardball. Does he listen? Does he break a vase? Does he get sent to the corner, nose to the wall? Readers or listeners will be gripped by this episode right out of their own lives, through to the stray tear, the look of contrition, and the moment of redemption: "Davey, come here. Yes, David I love you." The illustrations are wonderful, full of good-time trouble-making tomfoolery, borrowing on the energy of children's drawings and the determined strokes of their early attempts at lettering. David is a small, snaggle-toothed piehead whose mischief—for those who don't have to clean up after him—is nothing short of exhilarating.
From the Publisher
* "Nothing short of exhilarating." – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
* "Children will relish the deliciously bad behavior and the warm and cuddly conclusion." – School Library Journal (starred review)Caldecott Honor Book
New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year
School Library Journal Best Books
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