Never, Not Ever! by Beatrice Alemagna
Pascaline is a three-year-old bat with very clear ideas. She doesn’t want to go to school. Not now. Never. Not ever! Even her toys agree with her.
Her parents try to give her reasons why she should go – doing lots of interesting things, making lots of friends – all while Pascaline hilariously clings to the curtains, the furniture and the carpet, saying no, until she finally screams: “Never, Not Ever!”
Her scream magically shrinks her parents, and she is able to secretly tuck them under her wings and take them to school with her. But having them there turns out to be a disaster: they interrupt lessons, get in the way of doing fun things like flying, and even make lunchtime and nap time difficult.
School is just no fun when Pascaline has to take care of her parents. And it’s no fun either when nobody seems to be waiting to pick her up at the end of the day – even if, of course, her parents have been with her the whole time. By the time they enthusiastically suggest they could come again tomorrow, Pascaline has a very clear answer in mind. Can you guess it?
How I feel about this book:
I read this as the parent of a three-year-old, and some pages felt very close to home. Like many families, we’ve had our ups and downs around preparing to go to school. This book didn’t magically solve anything, but it gave us a playful, child-friendly way to talk about why parents can’t go to school with their children – and that has made those moments a little easier.
It has also become a favourite for pretend play in our home: acting out scenes, giving voices to the characters, and turning the story into a little performance.
Because Beatrice Alemagna is an Italian author-illustrator living in France, it seems to me that she might not be as well known in the US or Canada. But in Europe she is a sensation in picture book storytelling and illustration. Our family is definitely a fan of her work! We’ve read On a Magical Do-Nothing Day, The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy, Pepper & Me, A Lion in Paris, Lotta Combinaguai (Lotta on Troublemaker Street) and, of course, Never, Not Ever!
The illustrations complement the story with universal details that children all over the world can relate to: feeling content in their own little world, pushing her toys in a stroller while not trusting of the idea of school, being stubborn and overwhelmed by big emotions, wanting to be in control, feeling anger, disgust, and sadness. All normal feelings for a three-year-old. All normal and healthy to experience, even when they’re uncomfortable.
This emotional range is also at the heart of my own picture book Inside, which invites children to notice and feel both positive emotions like joy, thrill (excitement), and trust and negative ones like anger, gloom, or disgust that can live inside of us.