The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

McNaughton, Colin

Don't Step on the Crack!

32 pp. | Dial | May, 2001 | Trade ISBN 0-8037-2611-2 $$14.99

(2) K-3 McNaughton brings a giddily paranoid dimension to an old superstition, pitting a bespectacled little boy against a God-like authorial voice warning him not to step on a crack because "it's really bad luck!" The voice then goes on, entertainingly, about all the possibilities: "You might suddenly turn into a pig!" "Maybe your dad might decide to become a hippy." The warnings of doom are amplified by the large-scale line and watercolor pictures.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2001