Edwardo: The Horriblest Boy in the Whole Wide World

John Burningham has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and received four New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year Awards. His many delightful picture books include Hey! Get Off Our Train, Hushabye, and The Magic Bed. He lives with his wife Helen Oxenbury in London.
From the Hardcover edition.

Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 3—A thinly disguised discourse on the dangers of a discouraging word and on living up (or down) to labels. Edwardo appears to be the most ordinary of healthy, energetic boys-full of standard-issue snips and snails and puppy-dog tails-doing the most ordinary of things: making noise and messes, eschewing soap and water, and occasionally being not in the best of tempers. It's only when the negative grown-ups around him assert that he is the noisiest, nastiest, dirtiest boy ever that Edwardo turns terrible. In fact, as long as they already think it, he might as well be "the horriblest boy in the whole wide world." Can a kind word from a thoughtful adult nurture what's nice in little Edwardo (still occasionally dirty, clumsy, noisy, and rude)? You betcha. Fans of Burningham will delight in his witty, winsome pictures, so full of animation and expression, and perhaps all readers will take a second or two to consider the impact of hastily chosen words. An important message with a special delivery.—Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT
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