• Who's Reading What on Wednesdays?

Oh No! Not Again! (Or How I Built a Time Machine To Save History) (Or At Least My History Grade) | February 6, 2013

by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Dan Santat (Disney Hyperion, June 2012)

When the unnamed protagonist of the follow up to ‘Oh No! Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World’ gets a question wrong on her history test, she knows there’s only one thing to do: build a time machine and change history so she can be right. Such is the inner workings of a child genius. Predictably, the plan backfires, and cavemen run off with the time machine and invade history.

Illustrator Dan Santat is on form as always, his strong sense of lighting and big cartoon expressions adding appropriate personality to the minimalist text. However, the story feels a bit rushed and the ending a little short– its form perhaps more analogous to a cartoon short or an extended comic strip than a more traditional picture book arc. Ultimately, the mark of a good story is that it leaves its reader wanting more at the end, and ‘Oh No! Not Again!’ succeeds brilliantly on that front. This is a book that will have children and adults alike wanting to spend ample time poring over every page.

Learn more about this title