Telephone

By Mac Barnett and Jen Corace

From the New York Times–bestselling author: “Great for read-alouds . . . [A] unique, clever book that young readers will love.” —School Library Journal
 
It’s time to fly home for dinner! In this witty picture book from Mac Barnett, a Caldecott Honor and E.B. White Read Aloud Award winner, a mother bird gives the bird next to her a message for little Peter. But passing messages on a telephone line isn’t as simple as it sounds. Each subsequent bird understands Mama’s message according to its own very particular hobbies, personality, and situation. Will Peter ever get home for dinner?
 
This uproarious interpretation of a favorite children’s game will get everyone giggling and is sure to lead to countless rereads.
 
“Raucous.” —The New York Times
 
“Silly fun! (Pass it on.)” —Kirkus Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452130668

Mac Barnett

Mac Barnett is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than thirty languages. His picture books include two Caldecott Honor–winning collaborations with Jon Klassen: Sam & Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn. Among his other popular books are I Love You Like a Pig, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli, and The Magic Word, illustrated by Elise Parsley. He lives in Oakland, California. You can visit him online at macbarnett.com.

Book preview

Reviews for Telephone

[librolindsay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Man, birds have really lousy hearing.

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've never actually successfully played the game Telephone, have you? Nonetheless, the concept is fun and has inspired some great stories. I particularly enjoyed this one because of the art style, and because the birds are sitting on the telephone wires. The story itself is aimed at the little children who are the core audience for picture-books, though, and it didn't do much of anything for me. Some will think it crazy funny.

[communitylibrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A cute play on the game telephone put into words.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An absurd, witty take on the Telephone game that will give kids lots to giggle about.

[jmille113 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Telephone is a book that shows how messages can be misconstrued; fortunately, a wise owl knows this grape vine! I like this book for four reasons. To start, I like how the story is developed as each character, a different bird, receives, and then erroneously sends, the message to the next. I also like how each bird in the grape vine is dressed to represent the bias that leads to its misinterpretation of the message it received. For instance, a goose dressed as a pilot receives the message “Tell Peter: Hit pop flies and homers,” and relays it as “Tell Peter: Prop planes are for fliers.” This example also highlights another aspect of the writing that I like; how each new phrase sounds similar to the last, making more sense of the miscommunications. Finally, I like the surprise ending when the owl receives an irrational, paranoid set of instructions from a crazy bird, then calmly turns to Peter and says “Hey Peter. Your mom says fly home for dinner,” which was the original message.

[librarianmaven · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The game of Telephone becomes literal as a wide variety of birds sitting on a telephone wire pass on the message that Peter, a pigeon, is to come home for dinner, with silly results. Saturated color and birds who convey a lot of personality in a single sentence make this a fantastic book for read aloud or one on one reading.

[melissarochelle_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read on September 19, 2014I loved the illustrations. And the wise owl who saw through all the crazy is awesome. Lots of silly fun here!