Do Not Go In There!, a glass half-full/full glass illustrated book

Do Not Go In There! is an illustrated book that looks at the two types of people. Some see the glass half full and those who see it as half empty. It’s a world made up of people who see possibilities and others who see reasons why something shouldn’t be done. Morton and Bogart are the two creatures that toss about the pros and cons in the book. They’re best friends, but like most best friends they don’t see eye to eye on everything.

The concept behind Do Not Go In There! is one that children’s books have explored for decades. I forget the exact name of the book I had like that when I was a kid, but the recurring punch line was ‘good news-bad news’. In this case, Morton is a polka-dotted dog-like creature with ears that are more at home on a rabbit. He’s relentlessly happy and quite eager to explore.

This often puts him at the other end of the stick from Bogart. Bogart is a large purple-headed blue lump of fur with sky blue ears and stick, black legs. The two friends see a red door in the distance with a shiny, gold doorknob. Morton imagines the possibilities behind the door while Bogart automatically goes to the worst-case scenario. Morton imagines a fortress on the other side with candy in the hills. Bogart can only see that parts of the fort are for a spaceship that hungry wolves are building.  

Do Not Go In There! is the kind of curiosity inspired book that will always be printed. They’ll be updated with new characters, color schemes or whatever future generations of young readers are demanding. As a book, it’s cute and will certainly hit the sweet spot for some pre-k through first-grade readers. There is something about the book though that comes off as very skinny. Granted part of that could be because there are 22 pages in it.

One can’t judge the quality of a book by its pages. However, for a tried and true formula like this, you can make it bigger and notch up the crazy. You’ll be reading this to small kids whose imagination can bend reality and make you question if they’re operating in the same time and space. Don’t Go In There! scratches the surface of this, but doesn’t go deep enough, especially given its short length.

The illustrations by Izzy Burton build as the book gets to the middle. That is the way that these books operate. However, just over halfway through the book goes simple again, relieving all the tension-and fun reading, which allows the book to go out with a whimper instead of a bang.

Do Not Go In There! operates under our pizza rule of illustrated books. Just like pizza, there really aren’t bad ones, but there are instances where you’ve had better. If you stumble across this book in the library your kids will enjoy it, laugh for a bit, and will relate it to one of their friends. It won’t be their best book friend, but it’ll be enjoyable when they see it for a moment.

Do Not Go In There! is by Ariel Horn with illustrations by Izzy Burton and on Imprint, a part of Macmillan Publishers.

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