"No, David!" by David Shannon

Contained within this blog entry is a review of a Caldecott Honor award winning book, No David, by David Shannon. Shannon received a series of illustrations from his mother that he had created when he was a child, titled No David. The author originally reflected upon this commonly repeated phrase in his childhood house. After reformatting his original text and revising the illustrations Shannon published No David as a memoir to his childhood. In the forward, Shannon dedicates the book to the two women in his life that have put up with him during his worst behaviors, his mother and his wife.

No David contains two-page illustrations of a young David Shannon being told "No!" as he pushes the boundaries of proper behavior. We find David covered in mud and leaves walking though the house trailing the outdoors with a sharp "No, no, no David" etched into the frame. Shannon's use of perspective is taken directly from that of a child. Objects appear to exist out of reach of the viewer. I find the most amusing page to be an image of David in a living room filled with scattered toys. The viewer can only see the back of David, however, because he is sitting inches away from the television. David's mother asks her son to, "Put the toys away David." The momentum of the text is reaches its peak when David is called by his mother to come to her for a hug. The reader is finally introduced to a new word, "yes, David."

Shannon owes his success to both his honest account of early childhood and his ability to create images that are in one sense refined and in another completely childlike. The illustrations within No David appear to have been produced by a child, yet color and perspective are so carefully considered that the outcome is cathartic. David's character resonates with my own childhood experiences, yet I am unsure of how this text would be digested from the girls in the classroom. For this reason, I am left undecided on whether or not No David would be appropriate for a whole class read aloud. The unconditional love of a mother to her child is critical to Shannon's message. Even though David is seemingly unable to stay out of trouble, there is the assurance at the end of the day that he will always be loved. As a young man with a loving mother I melt at Shannon's ending. Lastly, I find No David to be a text that an educator may need to refer to after an especially difficult day. Students must feel safe and cared for to gain anything from our instruction. David Shannon will appear on the bookshelf of my future school library.