No, David! by David Shannon

Hey, Story Seekers!

Today we're meeting David.

David is about to make a bad decision.

Then another one.

Then another one.

At some point you begin to wonder whether this child wakes up every morning, looks around the house, and thinks, "All right. What haven't I tried yet?"

No, David!, written and illustrated by David Shannon, is a picture book with very few words and an impressive amount of trouble.

Readit is currently studying David's behavior with the intense concentration of somebody who may be getting ideas.

I don't like this.

Book Breakdown

David Shannon made a version of this book when he was five years old. He drew it on orange paper: pictures of himself sneaking into the cookie jar, jumping on the bed, making too much noise. The whole book contained exactly two words, "No" and "David," because those were the two he heard most and the two he could spell.

In 1997 he found it again in his mother's closet. He rebuilt it and published it the following year. It took a Caldecott Honor in 1999 and a place on the New York Times Best Illustrated list.

David spends most of those pages earning the title.

He writes on the walls.

He climbs for the cookie jar.

He tracks mud through the house.

He bangs on pots.

He plays with his food.

He picks his nose.

He floods the bathroom.

He runs outside without any clothes on.

And eventually he makes the decision every child in a picture book should know is going to end badly.

Baseball.

Inside.

David.

Come on, buddy.

The words are mostly his mother's warnings and commands. We don't need paragraphs explaining what David is doing, because Shannon puts the whole disaster in the pictures.

That's what makes the book interesting.

Take away the illustrations and there isn't much story left. Take away most of the words and you could probably still follow David through his day.

Shannon draws him with a huge round head, pointy teeth, a tiny body, and expressions that leave absolutely no doubt about what kind of mood he's in. The artwork keeps the rough energy of a child's drawing, right down to the handwriting, which fits the book's origin perfectly.

David doesn't look polished.

David looks like trouble drew a self-portrait.

And Shannon knows exactly how to use that face.

Sometimes David is gleeful. Sometimes determined. Sometimes furious. Then comes the moment when the indoor baseball ends the way indoor baseball ends, the fun drains out of him, and suddenly he's a little kid who knows he messed up.

That's where the book changes.

After page after page of no, David finally gets something else from his mother.

Love.

The ending matters. Without it, this is thirty-two pages of an adult yelling at a child. With it, Shannon draws the line clearly: David's behavior can be unacceptable without David becoming unacceptable.

That's a much better book.

For teachers and librarians: Lexile AD140L · Guided Reading Level F · DRA 10 · grades PreK to K, and Scholastic puts the interest age as low as 2. Thirty-two pages, The Blue Sky Press and Scholastic, September 1, 1998. A 1999 Caldecott Honor Book.

Jungle Jimmy's Journal

Here's what I like most about this book.

Children get promoted.

Usually they're the ones hearing:

Stop.

Don't touch that.

Put that down.

Not in the house.

Leave your brother alone.

Why is that wet?

With No, David!, suddenly the kid listening to the story gets to be the responsible one.

David reaches for something he shouldn't.

The room knows what to do.

"NO, DAVID!"

David makes another terrible choice.

"NO, DAVID!"

Pretty soon you've got a bunch of preschoolers running a neighborhood association.

And they love it.

That isn't my guess about how it might play. Common Sense Media describes a library read-aloud where a group of four-year-olds took the job over completely. Every time David did something, "they cried with glee, 'No, David!' and then dissolved in giggles."

Makes perfect sense.

The pictures give them enough information to judge the situation before the adult reader has to explain anything. A four-year-old can look at David standing in the living room with a baseball bat and know we're about to have a problem.

That's participation built right into the page.

There's another reason the sparse text works.

It leaves room for the adult and the child to talk.

Why shouldn't David do that?

What's going to happen?

Look at his face. Does he think this is a good idea?

Would you do that?

Careful with that last one.

You may receive information you were happier not knowing.

I also appreciate that Shannon doesn't turn the ending into a speech about rules. David gets consequences. David feels bad. Then he gets reassurance.

Done.

The love doesn't erase what he did.

What he did doesn't erase the love.

That's plenty.

Readit's Review

Okay.

David is hilarious.

But I would NOT do all this stuff.

Some of it.

Maybe.

The baseball inside the house is obviously a terrible idea because there are too many breakable things.

Also, running outside naked?

WHY?

Where are you going?

At least put shoes on.

Actually, put everything on.

I like his teeth because he looks like he could bite through a chair.

And I like that you can tell what he's doing without somebody explaining it. You just look at the picture and go, "David, NO."

The mud is bad.

The food thing is gross.

Picking his nose is also gross.

I think the bathtub looks fun, except somebody has to clean up all that water afterward.

Probably not David.

The sad part after he breaks the vase made me feel bad for him, though.

He was being crazy before that.

Then he wasn't.

I liked when his mom still loved him.

But I still wouldn't let him use my baseball bat.

What Others Think

David has been causing trouble for a long time and readers are still showing up to watch. Goodreads has No, David! at 4.17 out of 5 from more than 64,000 ratings, with roughly 3,470 written reviews.

A few reactions come up again and again. Adults remember the book from their own childhood. Parents recognize the behavior. Teachers like how fast children join in. And kids are mostly interested in the pictures and in the forbidden thrill of watching David do every single thing he isn't supposed to do.

The best evidence I found came from two six-year-olds.

Candice C. and Alisha A., reviewing for the Spaghetti Book Club out of a first-grade class, went with: "We like the book because it is funny." On the art: "The illustrations make us laugh." They listed the walls, the muddy feet, the pots and pans, the indoor baseball, the food, and the running outside with no clothes.

Then they did something I did not expect from six-year-olds. They assessed the reading level: "This book is easy for kids who are learning to read because it's a short book with easy words. It's full of pictures and only a few words!"

And one of them owned up to having written on the wall, same as David.

Respect.

Reader reaction isn't unanimous. Some adults dislike how much of the book is David hearing no without much redirection or explanation. That's a reasonable objection if you're reading it as a model for handling behavior.

I don't think that's where the book is strongest.

It works better as recognition.

Kids know these rules. They know the voice. They know the feeling of getting carried away. And they definitely know what it feels like when an adult isn't thrilled with something they've done.

Then David gets the thing he needs most at the end.

He still belongs.

Belly Laugh Scale

4 out of 5: Big-Time Belly Laughs

David is a visual comedy machine.

The pointy teeth.

The expressions.

The mud.

The food.

The bathtub.

The naked escape.

And the steady parade of decisions that make children feel unusually responsible by comparison.

A lot of the laughter comes from recognition and anticipation. Kids see what David is doing and know exactly what the grown-up is about to say.

Then they get to say it first.

That's good read-aloud comedy.

Not quite a five for me, because the humor is deliberately repetitive and simple.

But in a room full of preschoolers?

Four is safe.

Possibly wear ear protection.

Final Explorer Verdict

I'd recommend No, David! most strongly for ages 2 to 6, particularly preschool and kindergarten storytimes.

It's short. It's visual. Children can participate almost immediately, and the illustrations give you far more to talk about than the tiny amount of text suggests.

It's also a useful book for talking about rules without turning storytime into a courtroom.

Ask what David is doing.

Ask what might happen next.

Ask how he feels when he finally goes too far.

Then pay attention to the ending.

David has spent almost the entire book hearing what he shouldn't do.

But that's not the last thing he hears.

Good.

Because kids need boundaries.

They also need to know those boundaries aren't the same thing as love.

If the part your kid loves is getting to yell at the book, I built a whole one around that. Look! There Are No Dinos Inside Of This Book has a narrator insisting there are no dinosaurs anywhere while dinosaurs misbehave directly behind him. Kids correct David. They get to correct Dangerous Dave too, and he deserves it more.

And if you happen to be a child reading this review, one final point.

No baseball in the house.

David already tested it.

Didn't work.

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit