How to Clean Your Room in 10 Easy Steps

Starred review from April 19, 2010
“Pull everything out of your drawers and closet and shelves. Every Single Thing,” instructs the young narrator in Huget's (Thanks a LOT, Emily Post!
) goofily earnest how-not-to manual, which is all but guaranteed to induce laughter. “Divide your big pile into three different piles. One pile of stuff that's broken. One pile of stuff you're too grown-up to play with anymore. And one pile of things that you love more than anything else in the world and want to keep forever and ever.” Guess which pile is the biggest. With marching orders like that—and tips like “Pizza crusts may be munched on if they're less than a month old”—kids may find themselves asking their parents if it's time for housekeeping. Pairing Huget's cracked domestic advice with Koren (Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie
) is truly inspired. The New Yorker
cartoonist's lavishly squiggly, scratchy ink line and endearingly discombobulated characters (which include not only the narrator but a scruffy retinue of real and stuffed animals) seem as natural a fit for this subject as dust bunnies under a bed. Bless this mess! Ages 4–8.

April 1, 2010
K-Gr 2-A girl demonstrates how to get results and have fun at the same time. Dusting can be done with a sock, dust bunnies can be hidden away in a dresser drawer with the candy wrappers ("You know, for crafts"), and unwanted and broken toys can be wrapped up and given to a younger sibling. The things that you love should be shoved into the closet with the door secured tightly. "Watch out. It might explode." The tongue-in-cheek humor in Koren's pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations and Huget's writing will be appreciated by children who are responsible for cleaning their own rooms. They may not have a pet cat and dog helping them as Ann Erica Kelly does, but her story lightens the burden of this most dreaded chore."Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2010
Grades K-3 Huget and New Yorker cartoonist Koren combine their considerable talents in this amusing how-to that will be familiar to any parent. Welcome to my room, says the young narrator. Its clean at the moment, and she is about to show how to get your room in the same shape. First, mess it up. The next spread makes fine use of Korens scratchy ink-and-watercolor art (with the emphasis on scratchy), as toys, clothes, pictures, and pets are tossed and tumbled through the room. The tongue-in-cheek tone of the text captures salient elements of cleanup, as when Mother suggests getting rid of old stuffed animals like that silly rabbit missing body parts. The narrator hugs the bunny tight, proclaiming it her favorite. When Mothers gone, toss it back onto the heap and forget about her. Theres a bit of an audience problem here. Its older kids (and adults!) wholl find this the funniest, but get it in the right hands, and hilarity will ensue.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2010
A girl gives hilariously bad advice on cleaning one's bedroom: e.g., "Always wait until your mother hollers, 'GET UP THERE AND CLEAN YOUR ROOM--NOW!' using all three of your names." Huget is uncommonly attuned to a kid's sensibility, and Koren's inimitable style--shaggy contour lines; beak-nosed, somewhat dowdy-looking characters--seems tailor-made for this mess-filled comic gem.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)