Review - The Boy in the Drawer

The Boy in the Drawer
by Robert Munsch
illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Date: 1982
Publisher: Annick Press
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 24
Format: e-book
Source: library

Shelley finds a small boy in her drawer who causes a lot of trouble.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Um... yeah. This is definitely one of the weaker Munsch/Martchenko titles. I don't get it at all! It reads more like a disjointed dream than any sort of coherent story.

Shelley's cleaning up her socks when she finds a boy in a drawer. She tries to tell her mother, but her mother doesn't seem to believe her. Then she finds the boy in her bed watering his tomato plant. Again, she tells her mother, to no avail. After that, she tries to read a book, but she finds the boy behind the curtain painting the window black. She tells him to go away, which makes him grow a little bit. Then she paints his ear black, which makes him grow a little more. She runs off to find her parents, but can't find them... until she reaches the kitchen, which is flooded. They don't seem to notice. Now the boy is taking a bath in the breadbox. It's at this point that Shelley figures out that negative attention makes the boy grow and positive attention makes the boy shrink. So they shrink the kid away to nothing and Shelley cleans up the mess.

Is this supposed to be a metaphor? Or am I just searching for meaning in a really odd, really random little story? The illustrations are okay, I guess (and I love the fact that Shelley was reading The Paper Bag Princess). But, overall, this didn't really work for me.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 2.17 out of 5