Yuck, A Love Story

Last updated
Yuck, A Love Story
Yuck, A Love Story (book cover).jpg
AuthorDon Gillmor
PublisherMarie-Louise Gay

Yuck, A Love Story is a children's picture book by Don Gillmor, illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay. [1] It was first published in 2000. [2]

Contents

Summary

The plot of Yuck, A Love Story centres on a young boy named Austin, who is upset that a girl named Amy is moving into the house next door. Feigning disinterest in Amy, Austin nevertheless wants to impress her. She is hard to impress, although he wears a superhero costume and builds a life-size statue of an Apatosaurus in her yard using Popsicle sticks. He tells his friend Sternberg that Amy is "yucky". He lassos the Moon to give to her as a birthday present, but it drags him to the Arctic before he can wrangle it back home. The Moon proves to be made of smelly blue cheese, which causes both Austin and Amy to say "Yuck" and decide they would prefer to have birthday cake.

Reception

The review by Quill and Quire says, "The exuberant zaniness of Gay's watercolour illustrations nicely complements Gillmor's wry sense of humour." The School Library Journal describes the book as "An amusing picture book fantasy with an endearing young protagonist." [3] Gregory Walters at Boyz Read says, "Gillmor's tale captures Austin's simultaneous feelings of repulsion and attraction to the new neighbor. Why is she so...different? The author adds whimsical details, worthy of smiles if not chuckles... Gay enhances the story with her quirky, endearing illustrations." [4]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picture book</span> Book with images at least as important as words

A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice Sendak</span> American childrens book author and illustrator (1928–2012)

Maurice Bernard Sendak was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was affected by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Sendak also wrote works such as In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, and illustrated many works by other authors including the Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik.

The Governor General's Award for English-language children's illustration is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian illustrator for a children's book written in English. It is one of four children's book awards among the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, one each for writers and illustrators of English- and French-language books. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the Canada Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesléa Newman</span> American author, editor, and feminist

Lesléa Newman is an American author, editor, and feminist best known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her one of the most celebrated authors in the category.

Laura Joffe Numeroff is an American author and illustrator of children's books who is best known as the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillian Hoban</span> American writer

Lillian Hoban was an American illustrator and children's writer best known for picture books created with her husband Russell Hoban. According to OCLC, she has published 326 works in 1,401 publications in 11 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie-Louise Gay</span> Canadian illustrator and childrens writer (born 1952)

Marie-Louise Gay is a Canadian children's writer and illustrator. She has received numerous awards for her written and illustrated works in both French and English, including the 2005 Vicky Metcalf Award, multiple Governor General's Awards, and multiple Janet Savage Blachford Prizes, among others.

Kady MacDonald Denton is a Canadian creator of children's books, primarily an illustrator of picture books. She observed in 2011 that "I'm in that quickly-shrinking group of illustrators who doesn’t use a computer at any stage in the illustration process."

Michael Allen Austin is an American illustrator, best known for his work in children’s books. Among the titles he has illustrated are Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg, written by Lori Mortensen; The Horned Toad Prince, written by Jackie Mims Hopkins; and Railroad John and the Red Rock Run, written by Tony Crunk. His illustrations have also appeared in magazines, such as Highlights for Children, Spider and Cricket, as well as galleries and museums throughout the United States.

Jane Dyer is an American author and illustrator of more than fifty books, including Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Cookies series and Jeanne Birdsall's Lucky and Squash.

Anita Lobel is a Polish-American illustrator of children's books, including On Market Street, written by her husband Arnold Lobel and a Caldecott Honor Book for illustration, A New Coat for Anna, Alison's Zinnia, and This Quiet Lady. One Lighthouse, One Moon, one of three books she created about her cat, Nini, is a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. Her childhood memoir, No Pretty Pictures, was a finalist for the National Book Award.

The Song within my Heart by Dave Bouchard is a children's picture book by David Bouchard with illustrations by Allen Sapp. It was first published in 2002 by Raincoast Books. A story about a young Cree boy, it is based on the memories of the illustrator as told to the author. Allen Sapp received a Governor General's Award for the illustrations in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Paul</span> New Zealand childrens book author/illustrator (born 1964)

Ruth Paul is a children's picture book author and illustrator from Wellington, New Zealand.

Don Gillmor is a Canadian journalist, novelist, historian and writer of children's books., and is the recipient of many awards for this journalism and fiction.

Patricia Marie Cummings is an American writer and illustrator of children's books.

Morag Hood is a Scottish writer and illustrator of children's books. Her primary medium is lino printing, although she uses a variety of techniques in her work. Her stories rely on interplay between text and illustration, creating space in the narrative for young readers to fill in. Many of her stories concern relationships, inclusion and prejudice. She has an MA in children's book illustration from the Cambridge School of Art. Hood was the winner of the UKLA book awards in the 3–6 category in 2018, for Colin and Lee, Carrot and Pea, and in 2019 for I am Bat. Her books have been nominated for several other awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

<i>From Archie to Zack</i> 2020 childrens picture book by Vincent Kirsch

From Archie to Zack is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Vincent X. Kirsch. It tells the story of two boys who have a crush on each other but don't have the courage to admit it. The book was published on December 29, 2020, by Abrams Books and received positive reviews, but some of its aspects were criticized. From Archie to Zack was a finalist on the 2021 Lambda Literary Award, in the Children's and Young Adult category.

<i>Love, Violet</i> 2021 picture book by Charlotte Sullivan Wild

Love, Violet is a children's picture book written by Charlotte Sullivan Wild and illustrated by Charlene Chua. It tells the love story of a girl named Violet, who is too shy to say how she feels to her classmate, Mira. The book was published on November 16, 2021, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

<i>Going Down Home with Daddy</i> 2019 picture book

Going Down Home with Daddy is a 2019 picture book written by Kelly Starling Lyons and illustrated by Daniel Minter. It tells the story of a young boy who attends a large family reunion at his great-grandmother's house and struggles to prepare a contribution to the family celebration. Inspired by Lyons's visit to a family gathering in rural Georgia, the book was published by Peachtree Publishing on April 1, 2019. The acrylic illustrations incorporate Adinkra symbols representing various concepts in Ghanaian culture. Critics praised the book's themes of family culture and heritage as well as Minter's illustrations, for which it received a Caldecott Honor in 2020. It also received the 2019 Lupine Award in the Picture Book category.

Julie Morstad is a Canadian writer and illustrator of children's books.

References

  1. Yuck, a Love Story at Goodreads
  2. Editions of Yuck, a Love Story at WorldCat
  3. 1 2 Yuck, a Love Story at Fitzhenry and Whiteside
  4. Yuck, a Love Story at Boyz Read
  5. "Cumulative List of Finalists for the Governor General's Literary Awards" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2017-05-20.