Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen
My rating: 4/5 cats
depending on your own psychological makeup, this is either a cute and funny children’s book, or the most insidious and emotionally scarring book intended for children since The Velveteen Rabbit.
since i dig emotional scars like sam and dave dig that hole, i’m gonna go with the darker interpretation here. and i feel like this interpretation is earned, since the entire book causes increasing agitation and frustration in the reader, who can’t quite squash that impulse to yell at the characters, “IT’S RIGHT THERE OH MY GOODNESS DON’T STOP NOW!!” leading up to the final explosive frustration of wanting just ONE MORE PAGE to settle the ending’s ambiguity.
but ambiguity’s cool – i dig it.
the moral of this story is: always listen to the dog.
and also maybe don’t fall asleep in holes.
what is this place???
