A Perfectly Messed-Up Story

by Patrick McDonnell

In this interactive and engaging read-aloud, bestselling author and award-winning artist Patrick McDonnell creates a funny, engaging, and almost perfect story about embracing life's messes.

Little Louie's story keeps getting messed up, and he's not happy about it! What's the point of telling his tale if he can't tell it perfectly? But when he stops and takes a deep breath, he realizes that everything is actually just fine, and his story is a good one--imperfections and all.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Humor, Storytime, Fiction, Books About Books, Growth Mindset

40 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Patrick McDonnell’s comic strip, MUTTS, is celebrating its 30th anniversary, having appeared in over 700 newspapers across 20 countries. MUTTS has received numerous awards for its artistry and its animal and environmental themes. These include the NCS Reuben for Cartoonist of the Year, seven Harveys and the Eisner Humanitarian Award. Charles Schulz called MUTTS “One of the best comics strips of all time.”

BREAKING THE CHAIN: THE GUARD DOG STORY, a collection of his newsworthy story centered freeing MUTTS chained dog, Guard Dog, will be published in fall 2024.
McDonnell’s latest book is THE SUPER HERO’S JOURNEY, a graphic novel love letter to Marvel Comics and Jack Kirby. It was on 11 ‘best of’ lists for 2023.

THE ART OF NOTHING, an oeuvre of McDonnell’s work, comprehensively celebrates Patrick’s comic strip career. McDonnell is also the author of New York Times bestselling picture books, including THE GIFT OF NOTHING and the Caldecott Honor winning ME...JANE (a childhood biography of Dr. Jane Goodall). Both have been adapted as musicals for the Kennedy Center stage. In addition, he has collaborated with spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle on GUARDIANS OF BEING and with poet Daniel Ladinsky on DARLING I LOVE YOU. HEART TO HEART: A CONVERSATION ON LOVE AND HOPE FOR OUR PRECIOUS PLANET is a collaboration with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His Holiness has said “It is my hope that this book will open the eyes, minds and hearts of all people.”

In 2021, Ohio State University hosted Side Effects, a major exhibition of his large scale canvases. There will be a year-long retrospective of McDonnell’s comic strips, book illustrations and paintings at the San Diego Comic-Con Museum opening in January 2025.

McDonnell was a member of the Board of Directors of The Humane Society of the United States for 18 years as well as The Fund for Animals, and continues to serve as a director for The Charles M. Schulz Museum and D&R Greenway Land Trust.

You can sign up for the MUTTS daily email at mutts.com.

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 5 out of 5]

* * * Read & Reviewed by Me and My Niece Emma * * *

More like...A Perfectly AWESOME Story! I can't believe Emma didn't want to get this. When I found it at the library and suggested it, she gave me her scrunched up, "Whaaat? Really? I don't know..." face, but I persevered. Something about A Perfectly Messed-Up Story had her name written all over it.

VINDICATION! She loved it! Granted, I had to "play it big" in my reading, going over the top as the main character, Louie, a Casper-pale midget with a bad comb-over sporting a yellow onesie, who attempts to tell his perfect story only to be foiled by huge globs of peanut butter and jelly and the like dropping on to the page from some imagined reader above.

"Once upon a time, little Louie went skipping merrily along," begins the story which worryingly continues on in such a staid manner, threatening to bore young readers/listeners. But then on page three, like most kids books do, the author throws in his monkeywrench, and soon enough Louie is being bombarded by all manner of sticky messes, impertinent fingerprints, and various sorts of stains. He becomes so exasperated that he gives up, but just when it seems there's no hope for this book, the story begins again, Louie makes it all the way through without a single droplet of PB&J, and all is right with the world!

Emma's favorite part, and mine too, was when the peanut butter plopped right on Louie's face. Many a giggle ensued!

[Mischenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pour little Louie! His story keeps getting messed up. Or does it? Cute for little ones to read. A nice change from traditional stories. 4****

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

یک کتاب خیلی خوب کثیف شده
برداشت من از کتاب این بوده که آگاهی برای داشتن وسواس در کودکان بدهد که متوجه باشد هر چیز کثیفی دلیل بر دوست نداشتنی بودن آن نیست... که البته بنا به تجربه این قضیه تو بچه‌ها خیلی نادره.

[Mia 🌱 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being a picture book, this was so uplifting, and was just what I needed.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A laugh-out-loud funny story about a picture book protagonist who is having a tantrum over the fact that the owner of this particular book doesn't appear to take very good care of his belongings. It's sort of the meta-picture-book version of "And this is why we can't have nice things!" :)

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would it be over the top to say that Louie and I are connected across the astral plane? Perhaps. I will say that a picture book hasn't hit me in the feels like this since Baby Bear.

To begin with, consider the fourth wall obliterated. Personally, I'm not a fan of photoshopping real-world objects over ink/paint illustrations, but here it actually works and doesn't just look creepy! (I'm looking at you 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore--that one still gives me the heebie-jeebies.) According to the "About This (Messed-Up) Book" blurb Jeff Schultz takes responsibility for the messes, and the rest is done in pen & ink, brush pen, crayon, and watercolor.

It definitely has that Patrick McDonnell flair, a combination of whimsy and quirkiness, and (un)surprisingly potent emotional content (one time, on the info desk Me...Jane made me cry.) A Perfectly Messed-Up Story is no different. My favorite little flourishes are the "This book belongs to Me" on the front pages, and opening the story up with "Once upon a time," and going from the watercolor scenery to the white, blank background is a striking visual cue. Along with a good dose of humor, we get the idea that even though life isn't always a fairy-tale, we're all still here and that's awesome.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell gets well….a little messy. :D

Between bloops and blobs of peanut butter & jelly, drink rings and more--Louie tries to tell us his tale. A tale that shows readers of all ages that messes and mistakes happen in fiction and life. Life gets messy. It's not perfect. That’s what makes it interesting. The story, our story must go on! Through the stickiness! Through the drops, stains, and smears! Work through and with the messes in life.

My nephew absolutely loved this story. Louie’s reaction to the messes and attempted clean-ups made him laugh and laugh. A very fun read that pulls kids into the story and mess.

A joy to read out loud. Highly recommended.

[Nancy Kotkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Louie's story, so he gets upset when the book encounters all sorts of messes and spills. But Louie grows to realize that he loves his story, messes and all. This humorous meta-fictional picture book reminds readers, regardless of age, to embrace all the messes in our own stories. The illustrations extend the text extremely well. The peanut butter and jelly look quite real, as do the fingerprints and paper towel.

[Amanda Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been a tradition to read the Library Dragon by Deedy every year at the start of the school year and I am adding the Perfectly Messed-Up Story for the second week. The students were amazed by how real the peanut butter and jelly looked and they loved Louie. We talked about people with peanut allergies and how someone might get sick from a dirty book, and how none of us like to check out a book that has been damaged. It was a great book to lead into a lesson about book care. All of my students loved it K-5.

Even the 5th graders squeal when I get this book out. The younger students fill in a color wheel of emotion. The older students do a drawing activity where they start with a blank paper and I ask them to make a triangle. Then they pass the paper to another student who makes an oval. They pass again and then make two circles. Pass again and at this step they take what they got and make a character out of it. Meanwhile we talk about Louie's feelings in the book.

But before reading, I remind the students that the book has three voices: the narrator, Louie, and then theirs (the reader). I go into more detail with older students. The magic of reading: their voice is their knowledge interacting with the author's words. Mind Blowing.

10/2020 Last March as students left school because of the pandemic, this book got lost. We lost about $135 in books in just one classroom. I hope it turns up. But because of remote teaching, my funds were withheld until about the time that I would usually read this. So as soon as I could I ordered it and I just recorded myself reading it yesterday. I will add it to a slide with the book Ruby finds a Worry by Percival but I will label it surprise bonus story.

11/2023 Just closed my 16th Scholastic bookfair which was a bust. But during the fair I overheard one of my students summarizing this book to her Mom's. I am not sure what made her think of it, but I was impressed by her summary. Reread for details!

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every children's librarian and media specialist needs this book. It may become my new go-to read-aloud for library tours. Louie is enjoying his story in the book until he encounters a blob. Sniff sniff, lick lick - it's jelly?! And then a blob of peanut butter. And fingerprints and orange juice.
"We need to show some respect here. Books are important." Louie says.
(Can I get an amen?)
In the end, Louie realizes his story is still a pretty good story, "messes and all" and the reader is still reading.
Good one!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So great! Teaching kids to take care of books? This should be your go-to read-aloud.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute.

[Tahani · Rating 5 out of 5]

You gonna love it..

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word: inspirational.

[Sandra Couch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: Little Louie is trying to tell his story when he keeps on getting interrupted. First, by a big drop of jelly on the page, then with peanut butter! When he starts up his story again someone drew in the book and completely throws him off task. As he is ready to give up, he discovers something about himself and his story.

Theme: I think the theme of this picture book is to never give up. Throughout the story, we see Louie work hard and overcome a lot of obstacles in order for him to make it through to the end. For example, after he encounters jelly and peanut butter splatters on the page, he gets discouraged and wants to give up with telling his story, then he realizes that even though there are messes on the pages, it is still a good story and that the reader is still reading the book so he becomes very motivated to finish telling his story. This contributes to the story because without the conflicts that Louie encounters, he wouldn’t be able to realize that he is able to overcome them and continue on. Also, his feelings contribute to the theme as we see him become angry and frustrated with being unable to share his story in his book. Without these things, the theme wouldn’t be evident. I think the author included this theme because it can be easy for kids to relate to and want to give up on something if they are having a hard time accomplishing it. Kids will be able to connect to a time where they felt like giving up but didn’t and were able to achieve their goal.

Tone: This book has a very a dramatic humorous tone. For example, we are introduced to Louie as a glob of jelly drips onto the page and he exclaims, ‘Hey, wait’! Curious as to what it is, he begins to lick the glob and figures out that it is jelly. He begins to explain how this is ruining his story. As the book continues other things get in the way of his story and he dramatically tells the reader that they are showing no respect to the pristine white pages. He also encounters crayon marks on one of the pages and freaks out and says that it’s the worst thing ever! Louie’s exaggerated reactions contribute to the story in the way that we are able to better see and feel when he is mad or frustrated. This tone serves as a reminder of the theme to keep it together and never give up in situations that are discouraging.

Media: The illustrations in this book is amazing! The illustrator uses a combination of pen and ink, brush pen, crayon, and watercolor on watercolor paper. It also looks like he uses photographic elements (ie the peanut butter and jelly) which all work very nicely together. The author also uses the negative space around the frame to highlight the orange juice spill and fingerprints. The different types of medium really makes it feel like the person reading the story is involved and that they caused the mess on the pages. For example, Louie reacts to the peanut butter plopping on the page by saying, “Jelly AND peanut butter! AUGH! The chunky kind!” When I look at the illustration of the peanut butter it looks very real you can even see the chunks in it! I was able to easily visualize this happening and I am reminded how often I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a kid. This contributes to the story because the type of media that is used adds to the overall experience of the reader being a messy child who color, touched everything, loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and needed their parent to clean up their messes (as we can see with the paper towel smear). The drawings are relatively simple but they reveal Louie’s vast emotional range. This allows children to recognize themselves in the character’s reaction and in the spills that happen.

Colors: Throughout the book, we see Louie's experiences a variety of emotions. The book uses plenty of bright crisp colors before the conflict occurs. For example, in the opening scene Louie is walking along wearing yellow indicating that he is happy, as we can tell from him singing too. As he approaches the dark red of the jelly, which is associated with rage and anger, which allows us to get sort of a foreshadowing that the conflicts will make him angry, which they do. This contributes to the story because the use of colors allow us to connect with Louies emotions. For example, when the black fingerprints first appear on the page, I felt a sense of mystery not knowing what other messes he was going to encounter. The color black is associated with mystery and the unknown. This influenced my mood in the way that I started to feed bad for him. Ironically, the following pages reveal Louie didn’t know what to expect next either.

Postmodern Explanation: It is very evident that this book is of the postmodern genre. For example, the book is playful, and breaks the traditional storytelling rules. We see this in the way that the character comments on his own story. For example, when Jelly first stains the page he comments, “Who would eat a Jelly Sandwich while reading MY book?”. Another reason is that it is hinted that he addresses the narrator. For example, he says, “We need to show some respect here. Books are important. They Teach us stuff and they inspire us.” This is said while looking at the reader and after peanut butter, jelly, orange juice and fingerprints interrupt his story. Also, there are breaks and interruptions in the telling of the story. We see this in the way that Louie doesn’t even get to tell him story by the end of the book.

Opinion: I really liked this book. I thought it was very engaging to read because I felt like I was a part of the story which really drew me in. For example, when he says “Now can I PLEASE get on with MY story? Thank you.” We know that he is talking to the reader after hinting that the reader caused all the messes and ruined his story. Involving the reader in the story made it fun to read because I was able to reminisce on my days of being messy as a child. When I first encountered the book the bright colors on the cover made my very intrigued. As I flipped through the pages, the illustrations made me even more curious about what was happening. Upon reading the book, I have gained a new liking to this genre because these books are much different than the traditional ones and put a new spin on books for kids. I definitely plan on including post modern picture books in my classroom because I think that involving the reader makes that book more memorable for a child. For example, when I was a kid my favorite book was The Stinky Cheese Man and to this day I still remember it. I especially liked it because the characters spoke to me as the reader and as a kid I never encountered a book that did that before. I felt very engaged in the book.

[Oviya · Rating 1 out of 5]

it was NOT a pretty good story, messes and all

this book is an excuse to shame those who are clumsy, which is just not okay

Louie was not a relatable character; life is never fine.

I never want to see this book again in my life

the poor elementary students who have to read this...I feel so so so bad

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining book. Didn't go as I expected but has fun. Lauren wants to own this book even.

[Zahra Labbafan · Rating 4 out of 5]

خیلی خوب بود 😊

[Cristal Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfectly messed up story by Patrick McDonell is a picture book about the narrator attempting to read a story about a little boy named Louie, but as the story keeps going Louie says that it is his story as he tried to attempt to read it, but a jelly stain, peanut butter, finger print and other messes got on the book and it makes Louie feel sad.
My impression of this picture book is that I thought it was humorous and enjoyable to read because of all the silly little things that happen as the story continues, with the jelly stain on there and peanut butter they all look so realistic and Louie licking the jelly is just hilarious, I would definitely read this story to my students in class.
The protagonist in this story is Louie we can see his personality traits and how he is feeling from the beginning to end of the story. We can see that he starts of happy in the story because he is happily walking along singing, in the illustrations he has a happy face on. Throughout we can see he gets upset by the jelly and peanut butter stains and fingerprints. We can see when he is angry when he says “Orange juice! ARG! My story is getting all messed up” with his hands in the air and his face frowning and mouth open. We can also see when he is sad when he says “I’m in a messy old book that will end up in a garage sale, a book NO one will ever want to read or love.” The illustrations also shows he is sad because he is sitting down with his head hiding behind his arms crouched down.
The point of view in this story is 3rd person and first person. Third person point of view because it starts off with the narrator saying “Once upon a time, little Louie went skipping merrily along.” And “Tra-la-la-la he sang.” I say first person point of view also because then as the story goes along little Louie has talking bubbles and him saying “Who would eat a jelly sandwich reading my book?” and “My story is getting all messed up.”
A visual element I noticed is the different text, it has the traditional once upon a time starting, but then it has the talking bubbles like a comic would have. As the story continues there is also a lot of white space where only the character Louie and his talking bubbles are present. I believe the author did this so we can see the different metafiction strategies being used for being a post-modern picture book.
Another visual element I noticed is that the illustrations some look like a very traditional illustration a traditional tale would have but then as it went along the illustrations had very realistic things like the jelly, peanut butter, fingerprints and orange juice look very realistic.
This is a post-modern picture book because it has the different traits one would have such as different points of views and different types of illustrations, and the character Louie is very aware that someone is causing all those different stains on his story.

[Rylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Perfectly Messed-Up Story written by Patrick McDonnell is a book about a little character named Louie. He is trying to get his story started when plop....a huge goop of jelly comes out of nowhere and splats on his book page. As the book goes on, the character starts to notice more things that are appearing on his page due to the reader. Louie then starts to interact with the reader on how they can fix the problems of what is happening to the page. Then he comes across scribbles that only get worse when you try to clean them. That's it, and he gives up. Only until he realizes that everything is just fine and his story is not ruined. The illustrations in this book are expressive and the word bubbles add so much richness to the storyline. You can see that Louie is addressing the reader because the word bubbles and eye contact indicate that he is straying from outside the normal text. One element of the illustrations was the reoccurring background. Aside from the jelly, orange juice, coffee stains, etc. the background remains the same. This helps to add the interactive element of the book, where the reader is creating the story with their spills. Another element was the level of salience that was portrayed through Louie’s bright yellow onesie. The background remains the same though out a majority of the book, this leaves Louie and the reader to add change and motion to the story. Having Louie be illustrated in a bright, eye popping color really supports the significance of this one character.

Louie is the main character, and he loves to make that very well known throughout the book. He make claims like “My story is ruined.” and “My story is getting all MESSED UP!” Along with Louie, another main character is the invisible character, the reader. The story is being pulled along by the jelly stains and orange juice spills. This book showcases the different characteristics of post-modern picture books with recognizing that he is in a story and that there are interruption that keep preventing him from telling us is story. For example some devices in this text includes the book is self-referential, addresses the reader, does not really follow any sort of organization, references the story process, language playfulness, and indeterminacy. It has self referential because throughout the story Louie is saying things like "somebody's fingerprints are all over this" making it clear that he knows he is a story in a book. You can see a clear connection between the reader and Louie between the high amounts of eye connection. You can see on many of the pages that Louie is addressing the reader’s mistakes in text while his eye contact is reassuring this relationship. I thought that this story was so cute and fun. I have really seen a new side to literature with this postmodern style. I love how the reader and characters are so involved, it adds a fun to element to reading.

[Kaetlin V · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell tells the humorous tale of Louie. As the story starts, Louie is interrupted by peanut butter and jelly falling onto the book, stopping him in his tracks. Annoyed at the sight of this mess on his book, he turns to blame the reader. As fingerprints and colorings show up on his book, he begins to believe that no one will ever want to read his messed-up book. I really enjoyed reading this book because how the character addresses the reader directly. I also loved the cartoon-like illustrations.

A common aspect of postmodern picturebooks is the character interrupting the story to address the reader. Because of this, the style and tone are very interesting in this book because they switch from the narrator to when Louie interrupts the story. The style of McDonnell’s picturebook switches from formal to informal from this. For example, McDonnell uses many long sentences such as, “for in his heart, Louie knew everything was just..” for the narrator and short sentences for Louie. This gives almost a direct foil from Louie to the narrator, showing readers that Louie is doing the talking in the book now instead of the narrator. Like with the style, the tone of the book changes from cordial with the narrator to annoyed and dramatic for Louie. For example, Louie says, “AAAIIEEEE, this is the worst thing EVER.” This tone lets readers know Louie’s emotions and feelings in the book.

McDonnell uses typography with the text and speech bubbles to convey emotions of Louie. For example, McDonnell makes some words larger and bolder like “ever” when Louie exclaims, “just WHAT!?!” This lets readers know the emotions of Louie and creates an emphasis like how someone would normally exclaim it. McDonnell also uses lines to show movement and expression. For example, on the page where the coloring lines get blurred, readers can tell that Louie is jumping up in the air, flailing his arms because of the lines below and around him. Like this example, this shows readers how Louie is moving and expresses emotion.

This picturebook has many aspects that prove that it’s a postmodern picturebook. First, the character recognizes that he is in a book. Louie directly says, “who would eat a jelly sandwich while reading my book?” There are also multiple narratives in the story. We have the story that the book is supposed to be about, and we have Louie’s narrative. Lastly, there isn’t a chronological narrative to the story. Louie interrupts the first narrative because he’s upset that things are getting on his book because the story is about him.

[Cham · Rating 4 out of 5]

ایده‌ش جالب بود برام. منو به خودم آورد که چه‌قدر ازش‌هام از بین رفته و همه‌چیز بی‌ارزش شده، نمی‌دونم متاسفانه یا خوش‌بختانه.
مثلن ماجرای سمفونی مردگان‌م. وقتی روکش پلاستیکی‌ش داشت جدا می‌شد فقط حرص می‌خوردم. بعدن یه بار نذاشتن ببرمش سر جلسه‌ی امتحان و گذاشتم‌ش دم در سالن امتحانات، وقتی برگشتم دیدم گوشه‌ی جلدش پاره شده، باید می‌رفتم دوربین‌ها رو چک می‌کردم ببینم کار کدوم مادرصلواتی‌ای بود، کثافت. بعد از یه مدت وقتی پارگیش رو نگاه می‌کردم یه جورایی افتخار می‌کردم، می‌گفتم هرکی ببیندش می‌فهمه باهاش زندگی کردم و مثل خودم زخمی شده. الان که نگاه‌ش می‌کنم، نمی‌دونم، هیچ معنایی برام نداره (نمی‌دونم این جمله همون بار معنایی "ایت میکز می نو سنس" رو داره یا نه😅.).

**راستی اون یکی که بالاخره پسندیدم رو هم علامت نزدم، نگردین لطفن😁.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Louie's story keeps getting messed up, and he's not happy about it! What's the point of telling his tale if the reader can not control themselves enough to keep the book clean? But when he stops and takes a deep breath, he realizes that everything is actually just fine, and his story is a good one.

In this interactive and engaging read-aloud, bestselling author and award-winning artist Patrick McDonnell creates a funny, engaging, story about embracing life's messes.

The kids really did think someone totally messed up the book. Might be good to show at the first of the year about why we don't read books and eat at the same time!

[Peggy Hess Greenawalt · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4 year old grandson brought this book to me to read one night. We giggled through it, and then read it again giggling even more as jelly and crunchy peanut butter were plopped on the book pages along with fingerprints, orange juice, and crayons. As a librarian it speaks to me, helping to remind kids to love their books and treat them well. But as an adult it reminds me that life is messy, yet despite the challenges, we are still here writing our story and reading books. It truly was fun for me to read this aloud to my grandkids, and then later out loud to a group of adults.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fellow children's and school librarians, gather 'round ! Here we have a fresh and modern (and messy, don't forget messy!) book about bookcare fit to stand alongside the classic go to, Mr. Wiggle's Book! Read this just in time for the start of the new school year and looking forward to sharing it during library orientation in September. Likely to become a permanent fixture in my library bag of tricks.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's in those what-are-the-chances-of-this-happening minutes we can learn and flourish. Patrick McDonnell, creator of The Monster's Monster and Caldecott Honor winner of Me...Jane has written and illustrated a new title, A Perfectly MESSED-UP Story (Little, Brown and Company), destined to generate quite a bit of conversation. It's a joyous example of life's little accidental incidents and how one can choose to respond.


My full recommendation: http://bit.ly/1CBaKav

[Margaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one really breaks the fourth wall. Not only is the protagonist (Louie) aware that he's in a story, the "reader" is messing things up for him! First a jelly stain, then peanut butter.... what's next for this poor little guy?

I loved the use of mixed media here. And I truly also liked the illustration style itself. It reminded me of Walt Disney's early illustrations of Steamboat Willie.

[Tim Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

What? No coffee stains? What does Patrick McDonnell have against coffee anyway? That he can't, you know, include at least one coffee stain. At least little Louie didn't fall in the mud or perform a ding-dong ditch. If he had the story wouldn't be perfectly messed up, I guess. There's something to be said about being just the right amount of messed up. You know, not like way over the top messed up (Patrick Bateman) just a little messed up (Kilgore Trout). Anyhoo, I'm rambling now. Go read.

[Jennifer Berger · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know you have a great book in your hands when your 4-year old BEGS you to read it again and again. "A Perfectly Messed-Up Story" is one of those addictively hysterical books for kids. Between the PB&J, fingerprints, marker (or is it crayon?), and the orange juice, Louie's minor disdain for messyness shines through. I loved this book and will most certainly recommend it to all of my friends with young kids.

[Maggie KutsBorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Petition to switch from "Oh the Places You'll Go" to "A Perfectly Messed-Up Story" as the standard graduation gift. This excellent book would be totally at home in a preschool or toddler storytime, but anyone of any age will see the humor. And any adults or teens who struggle with anxiety or depression will find it especially comforting.