Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault, ill. Lois Ehlert

Having survived a bout of pestilence and plague (read: lice and flu), I’m in an oddly upbeat mood in this week’s episode. And why not? Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is, by its very definition, an upbeat book itself! As I point out, this is one of those rare “classic” picture books where the author(s) and illustrator are separate. Kate, as is expected, finds a 100% legitimate mistake in the art that nobody in the history of the world has ever noticed before. This book is Go, Dog. Go! in one important aspect: There is yet again a huge party at the top of a tree. We discuss what the Cyrillic edition of this book might look like, the great shame of the book, and (for some godforsaken reason) Love Is Blind.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

As I mentioned in the show, the Dan Santat / Chris Harris alphabet book that’s so good is the upcoming The Alphabet’s Alphabet. This book isn’t out until September 29th and it is worth the wait, people. This. Is. Brilliant.

Kate objects to the fact that in one scene you see the parents comforting their children and in the next the kids are under the pile again. My theory is that this book is not altogether linear.

Actually, look at that pile-up one more time. See how m and o appear to be okay. So what happened between that image and this next one? You guys were perfectly fine!

My theory is that you sometimes get injured when you extricate yourself out of an accident.

And now we come to it. The mistake that Kate found in the art. I didn’t believe her at first when she mentioned that she’d found something but consider the following evidence:

Here you see the image on the endpapers of the colors of each letter…

As you can see, N is purple. And U . . .

U is blue. Remember this. It’s important.

So the accident happens and . . . what happened to lowercase n? Why is it blue?

Could it be that n and u have been switched around? The evidence would suggest it. Particularly when you consider that their colors are consistent everywhere BUT that one page. Ye gods! A mistake indeed!

It’s so delightful to me that Chicka Chicka Boom Boom costumes ABOUND when you Google Image search for them.

And finally, the book I mentioned was Fat Witch Brownies by Patricia Helding. Can’t recommend it enough.

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate