The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

MacRae, Tom

The Opposite

32 pp. | Peachtree | September, 2006 | Trade ISBN 1-56145-371-4 $15.95

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Elena Odriozola. When Nate meets the Opposite, it's hanging upside-down from his ceiling. Suddenly Nate appears to be spilling milk and lobbing paint; whenever he points to the real culprit, "the Opposite happened," and the creature disappears. Simple, expressive illustrations depict a mischievous but benign trickster and its increasingly frustrated victim. Readers will relish the twisty double-negative logic of Nate's eventual victory.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross