Giddy over Gaiman’s Chu’s Day

It arrived in the mail yesterday, the plain brown cardboard disguising the school-bus-yellow book jacket underneath. On the cover, an adorably goofy panda with aviator goggles and, emblazoned in bold text, the names of two of my favorite authors: Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex. A preschooler’s book written by Gaiman (whose entire corpus I love) and illustrated by Rex (whose talents are best displayed in the charmingly silly and unexpectedly profound The True Meaning of Smekday). This is gonna be good, I thought.

And it is. Hot off the presses, it’s colorful, with rich illustrations and text that is measured and perfectly timed for the catastrophic sneeze that serves as the climax of Chu’s Day. See Gaiman’s description of the creative process behind the book here, and then read this book. It’s an explosively powerful collaboration–dynamic and joyful.