Let’s Do Nothing! (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Let’s Do Nothing! Kate Quealy-Gainer Fucile, Tony. Let’s Do Nothing!; written and illus. by Tony Fucile. Candlewick, 2009 40p. ISBN 978-0-7636-3440-7 $16.99 R 4–7 yrs Frankie and Sal are bored: they’ve played every sport, painted every picture, read every comic book, baked “enough cookies to feed a small country,” and now there is nothing—which is exactly what they will attempt to do for ten whole seconds. In a series of increasingly hilarious spreads, the two boys attempt to remain as still as statues, giant redwoods, and even the Empire State Building, but they are deterred everytime by Frankie’s overactive imagination: pigeons attack the statues, Sal’s dog pees on the redwood, and King Kong presents an obvious threat to the Empire State Building. The imagined scenes employ vibrant color, in effective contrast with the [End Page 442] reality sequences, which set the boys either against backgrounds washed with dull blue or the creamy white of, well, nothing. There’s an airiness and spareness that recall Jules Feiffer or Jon Agee, but Fucile’s figures, ink line with acrylic paints (so evenly spread as to suggest digital color) have a retro touch in their period hues and springy drafting, and there’s a sly energy in their styling, especially in red-headed Sal and chubby, bespectacled Frankie, that suggests mischief from the get-go. Young viewers will no doubt relate to Frankie and Sal’s predicament, and they’ll relish coming up with their own ways to do nothing. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois