Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups ANNOTATION
A humorous revelation of the real reasons why adults tell children to do things, such as "Eat your vegetables," "Comb your hair," and "Don't blow bubbles in your milk."
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Top SecretSshhh!!! Don't tell...Eat your vegetables — they're good for you.Don't jump on the bad or it will break. And don't play with your food!
Parents are always spouting these rules. Do they really care about nutrients and mattresses, or are they hiding something? Luckily, one fearless grown-up will risk his neck and his dignity to find out. Disguised as everything from a chocolate milk scuba diver to a giant nose, this counterspy uncovers the disturbing truth. And what he learns will shock you like nothing before. Startling suckface emergencies! Dangerous digit gangs! Powerful sumo cells! Those are just some of the secrets revealed in this book by Caldecott medalist David Wisniewski. But don't let anyone catch you reading it-especially grown-ups. Who knows what could happen if they knew that you knew?
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Caldecott winner Wisniewski (Golem) spoofs conspiracy theories in this "confidential" volume, with a jacket designed to resemble a sealed manila envelope and illustrated with intricate cut-paper collages. "As a parent, I went along with it all at first: going to secret meetings... preparing for the day when my kids would want to know why this and why that. But not anymore!" confesses the narrator, whose typewritten words fill a crumpled sheet of brown paper. On the pages that follow, bulletins labeled "TOP SECRET" offer classified information. For example, "Grown-up Rule #31: Eat your vegetables" is followed by "Official Reason: They're good for you." This leads to "The Truth: You don't eat vegetables because they're good for you. You eat vegetables to k...." Here the document is torn as if by an enemy, and a turn of the page reveals, in oversize type: "to keep them under control!" A tyrannosaurus-style broccoli stalk marauds across the accompanying illustration, joined in its depredations by equally sinister carrots, radishes, etc. The engagingly silly formula repeats throughout, the text and the art consistent in their over-the-top humor and sure execution. The mock-official presentation gleefully contrasts with the utter ridiculousness of the "facts," just as the painstaking cut-paper technique contrasts with the loony wit of the compositions themselves. Yet, strangely, the findings seem to prove that young readers should comb their hair and stop blowing bubbles in their milk—could this exposé be the work of a double agent?
Children's Literature - Susie Wilde
The title is perched on a yellow cover that resembles a top-secret file. The back flap tells about the author with statements like, he's "old enough to know better, between 3'6" and 6'3". Inside, Wisniewski delivers on his promise when he reveals the secrets behind eight worn out adult sayings. For example, Grown-up Rule #31: Eat your vegetables. The Official Reason is that they are good for you. With a quick page turn, kids can learn the truth. You see, once meat-eating vegetables ruled the earth and now you've got to eat vegetables to "keep the little horrors fearful and demoralized and to protect modern civilization." Wisniewski trademark paper-cut collages are bright, colorful and as zany as the stories. This book will draw children like a magnet.
Children's Literature - Uma Krishnaswami
Ah, the Caldecott! When you win it, you can finally get away with writing and illustrating what you really want to. That's seems to be what Wisniewski has done, in this iconoclastic little tome that pushes both the publishing envelope and the parental button. Bet you didn't know the real reason for Grown-up Rule #37: Drink Plenty of Milk! Hint: it has to do with a top-secret government program and some cows you just gotta meet to believe. In the age of the 32-page picture book, here are a hefty 45 pages of text and illustration. Wisniewski's trademark cut-paper collages are turned to a refreshingly wicked purpose, and aimed squarely at the 8 to 10 crowd, who ought to lap it up like the proverbial milk.
School Library Journal
Gr 2-5Emulating the tongue-in-cheek approach of revisionist folklorist Jon Scieszka, Wisniewski presents a handful of goofy reasons for the rules that parents relentlessly inflict on their gullible children. He turns the tables on other adults by sharing his secret files and exposing the truth behind edicts such as "Comb your hair" (official reason: "It keeps it neat." The truth : "to stop it from going back into those little holes in your head") and "Don't play with your food" (official reason: "It's messy and rude." The truth: "...the food will want to play with you"). Silliness is the norm here and puns are sorely abused. The illustrations are fantasticthe amazingly intricate cut-paper designs are layered and then photographed, shadows enhancing the three-dimensional effect. However, despite Wisniewski's enthusiasm, not all of the absurdity works. The "collages" range from the tacky ("Hell's Pinkies" are the diminutive gang members, grown from chewed fingernails, that are forced to pick earwax), to the gross (a graphic sneeze), to the macabre (a boy and a headless chicken race toward one another in a literal interpretation of this game of nerves), to, unfortunately, the tasteless (the detail from Picasso's Guernica is offensive, bizarrely linked to the "Don't blow bubbles in your milk" rule). Still, kids should have fun coming up with their own silly explanations to combat this adult conspiracy run under the guise of manners.John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Kirkus Reviews
Wisniewski (Golem) satirizes the myriad rules that grown-ups impose on children, from eating vegetables and combing hair to refraining from nose-picking. On behalf of kids everywhere, the author sets out to sabotage the world's adults in their conspiracy to pass on proper hygiene, common courtesy, and good manners to children. Sleuthing through top-secret files, procured by disguising himself variously as an eggplant, a bedbug, a nail, or a giant nose, the author exposes the "sinister, truly macabre reasons for these seemingly innocent requests." Meat-eating saber-toothed asparagus and woolly cucumbers terrorized early humans back in the Age of Vegetables; humans eat them so as not to be eaten. Similarly, children drink milk to stop atomic cows (developed because "in the 1950s, our government was afraid that the Russians would develop the first atomic cow and flood the market with Communist milk") from exploding. This misguided attempt at subversive humor seems aimed at other adults, rather than the picture-book set, who won't understand the Cold War references nor laugh at the notions of Scottish shepherds herding mattresses on farms by serenading them with bonny ballads. Even the children in the age group that finds all references to body parts and bodily functions funny may be dumbfounded, though they will appreciate the painstakingly detailed cut-paper creations that depict, for example, a boy's face being sucked into a glass of milk.
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