The Boy Whose Face Froze Like That

by Lynn Plourde, Russ Cox (Illustrator)

"Stop it! Your face will freeze like that!" Wendell is a good kid-he wouldn't make faces if his parents told him not to, even if all his friends were making faces. But what harm would it do to make a funny face in the mirror if no one could see him? A lot of harm! Unlucky Wendell becomes the first kid in history whose face freezes in place! Wendell, his parents, and his dog try everything to unfreeze his face, but nothing works. Will Wendell ever get his face unfrozen? And what will his family think of him if his face is stuck like that forever? Find out in this charming, silly, and ultimately heartfelt story by dynamic duo Lynn Plourde and Russ Cox.

Genres: Picture Books, Humor, Family, Young Readers

35 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 10, 2020

About the author

I write kids' books--talk about a FUN job! I worked for 21 years as a speech-language therapist in Maine schools. When I got married, I got 3 & 4-year-old stepsons as part of my ready-made family. I read the boys picture books at bedtime. They fell asleep after 2 or 3 books, but I kept reading stacks and stacks of picture books and started to dream . . . maybe I could write picture books. I was already writing educational books (listening & speaking ideas for the classroom), but PICTURE BOOKS--that was different!

Different, and sloooooow! I had 13 years of rejections before getting my first book published, Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud, and I still get more rejections than acceptances--even after having more than 40 books published. So I'm still an author-in-training--learning to be a better author all the time.

I LOVE writing, the whole creative process. I also LOVE sharing my books with kids at schools: doing interactive readings, turning one of my books into a play, and teaching students how to plan and write different kinds of stories (i.e. problem stories, character stories, graphic novel scenes, fables) modeled after my books.

I love to try new kinds of writing such as poetic stories, a biography, a graphic novel, and more. Writing new kinds of stories is a challenge, but it makes writing fun and keeps me interested in the process.

Reviews

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blake and I both enjoyed reading this one aloud to each other!

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

You've all had your parents yell at you for making faces, right? It will freeze like that! This story tells what happens when you realize your parents were right. And a little moral about not worrying what others think about you.
Very fun.
Loved the faces on the kids AND the animals. (The cat is fantastic!) A very enjoyable read from Maine's dynamic duo, Plourde and Cox.

[Carol Gordon Ekster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is funny, well written with great illustrations. It's also a clever and unusual topic. Kids and parents will love it!

[Dylan Teut]

Not sure I followed or understood the plot of this story.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

HA

[Baby Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review was originally written for The Baby Bookworm. Visit us for new picture books reviews daily!

Hello, friends! Our book today is The Boy Whose Face Froze Like That, written by Lynn Plourde and illustrated by Russ Cox, a tale of mischief-making gone wrong.

Since the beginning of time, kids have made silly faces – it’s just something they do! And since the beginning of time, their parents have told them the familiar wives’ tale: “Stop it! Your face will freeze like that!” But perpetually-good kid Wendell never worries about that; he doesn’t make faces. He only ever follows the rules and plays it safe. That is, until the fateful day he gets to urge to try a silly face. Yet just as he’s settled on the perfect one, FLASH – Wendell’s face has frozen that way! The boy and his parents try everything to put his face back, but to no avail. What could have caused this? And will Wendell also be the first kid to ever have his face stuck that way… forever?

Underwhelming. The story starts with a strong and amusing concept, but quickly unravels. The initial conceit is that making silly faces in public is rude (sure), but Wendell is making his alone in his bathroom mirror – until, of course, his parents BURST IN to his private moment and start shouting. What’s rude about that? He wasn’t even doing it near another person! The root cause of Wendell’s stuck face turns out to be the pressure he feels to be perfect, though this given very little context – with the exception of their apparent disrespect for privacy, his parents aren’t shown to be overly demanding of their son; if anything, they seem to be the opposite. Lastly, while Wendell’s face is quite silly, the dialogue, written phonetically in a “funny face” dialect, sounds questionably like a genuine special-needs speech impediment when read aloud. The ending feels earnest yet reads as a bit heavy-handed, and the art features odd proportions and angular figures that are a little off-putting. The length was fine, but JJ seemed a bit checked-out throughout. This story had a creative concept and a decent theme of letting kids be kids, but it simply couldn’t save the uneven storyline.

(Note: A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

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