Not a Stick

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A beautifully designed book, celebrating the power of the imagination to transform even the most ordinary of objects into something magical.

A stick is just a stick... unless it's not a stick. From fishing rod to dragon-taming sword a small pig shows that a stick will go as far as the imagination allows.

Antoinette Portis captures the thrill of when pretend feels so real that it actually becomes reality. Her simple, spare text and illustrations show that seeing truly depends on the ability to believe in the possibilities.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Where Portis's Not a Box featured a plain brown wrapper, this winning sequel proffers a faux wood-grain cover. And where the earlier title featured a deceptively boxlike, hollow rectangle (which an inventive rabbit treated as a rocket or a race car), this follow-up introduces a little pig holding a long, forked object. An unenlightened voice offstage suggests, "Hey, be careful with that stick." The pig corrects the false impression ("It's not a stick") and demonstrates the item's many uses. Portis traces pig and plaything in a heavy black line on negative space, then superimposes jaunty blue line drawings that act as overlays to reveal the pig's imaginings. The pig stands astride the stick, and a rearing horse shape appears. The pig holds the stick at its midpoint and it becomes a paintbrush, aiming toward Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night. Where the offstage warnings appear in white italics on a gray ground, implying a drab rejection of fantasy ("Watch where you point that stick"), the pig's statements are printed against a deep and dreamy blue. Portis repeats her previous formula down to the conclusion, where the pig calls the DIY toy "my Not-a-Stick!," once again appealing to those who think outside the box. Ages up to 6. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 1-Portis follows up on her successful Not a Box (HarperCollins, 2007) with equally pleasing results. Young listeners will be treated to the imaginative world of a charmingly minimalist pig who appears to be holding an ordinary stick. Following each admonition, "Hey, be careful with that stick," the youngster insists on the following spread that "it's not a stick." Its true nature is then dramatically revealed through clever illustrations. Morphing from a fishing pole to a drum major's baton, a paintbrush, a barbell, a horse, a spear, and finally to a sword, this "Not-a-stick" is clearly a powerful key to other worlds. Portis's simple color palette and playful drawings with never a line out of place represent the best in children's illustration. Perfect for sharing aloud, Not a Stick will inspire youngsters to look for the magic in ordinary objects.-Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

This is literally a follow-up to Not a Box (2007), in which a rabbit notes the imaginary things a box can be. Here, the animal is a pig, and the object is a stick. When the unseen narrator urges, Be careful with that stick, the pig replies that it's not a stick. And sure enough, on succeeding pages, the object is a sword, a fishing rod, and inexplicably, a horse. Once again Portis' very simple black line drawings, set against clean backgrounds, leave plenty of room for imagination. Children will hope for others in the Not a series.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2008 Booklist

Horn Book Review

(Preschool) It's not hard to sum up this derivative but still enjoyable companion to Not a Box (rev. 1/07): different animal, different object, same concept. Once again focusing on the transformative power of children's imaginations, Portis here shows a young pig (drawn, like Box's rabbit, in simple black outline) brandishing a stick that, to the offstage narrator, is merely a hazard -- "Hey, be careful with that stick." But in the pig's mind -- as illustrated on alternating spreads -- it's a fishing pole, a drum major's baton, a paintbrush capable of producing Van Gogh-quality masterpieces, etc. The accent color is blue instead of red this time, but its purpose is the same: to highlight the difference between what the adult narrator sees (an ordinary stick) and the fanciful visions the young pig concocts during his creative play. Here's hoping Portis shows as much imagination as her protagonists with her next project and heads in a new direction. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

In a near carbon copy of her debut (Not a Box, 2006), Portis brings to life the imaginative properties inherent in an average stick. As a small pig plays blithely with its new toy, an omnipresent narrator questions and warns the animal about the wisdom of waving about the large pointy object. The pig, for its part, repeats again and again its insistence that this is not a stick. Dark blue lines allow readers to imagine--along with the animal--several feats of derring-do and wonder accomplished with the stick-turned-fishing rod/marching baton/cowboy's pony, etc. At the end, the pig triumphantly names its toy a "Not-a-Stick" and leads an imaginary dragon off in triumph. Accusations of Portis copycatting her original book are almost irrelevant in the face of this book's cheer. Certainly one hopes that she will someday find a new format for her creative drive, but at least this sequel has enough charm and understated pizzazz to allow its creator to work her magic one more time. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.