Are We There Yet? by Dan Santat (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Are We There Yet? by Dan Santat Elizabeth Bush Santat, Dan Are We There Yet?; written and illus. by Dan Santat. Little, 2016 [40p] ISBN 978-0-316-19999-5 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R 4-8 yrs A kid can go from full-out excitement to abject boredom before the car trip to Grandma’s is even underway. “But what happens,” the book asks, “when your brain becomes TOO bored?” Viewers turn the book to orient this question as the text wraps around the spread, and as time loses its meaning during the mind-numbing ride, the family makes its way deeper into the past: alongside a steam locomotive in the Wild West, perched on the plank of a pirate ship, at lance-point of an oncoming medieval jouster, parked next to the Egyptian pyramid construction zone, and into the age of dinosaurs. The kid in the car, now fully alert and amused, reverses the trajectory with a hasty game of dino fetch, propelling the family back to the future, but this time a little too far. They arrive at Grandma’s address, but it’s now the year 2059 and the house is gone. The parents, however, reassure their son that they know what they’re doing, and when he next opens his eyes, Grandma’s birthday party gets into full swing—replete with relatives so annoying that it must be time to hit the road again: “Can we go now?” Santat digs deep into his stockpile of illustrative tricks to manipulate time and space through clever page turns, comics style sequential frames, background fade outs, and a wealth of loony details to keep viewers scouring the scenes for giggle-worthy details. In fact there’s so much to see (including the bonus QR codes that decipher robot speech) that handing a copy to kids on their own road trip just might forestall the dreaded whine “Are we there yet?”—at least for a little while. Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois