Author of The Gingerbread Twins and the duck tale No Wet Feet for Quincy, Hayes opts for a human protagonist in this picture book following young Garrett’s stressful classroom experience in the face of an open-ended assignment: his teacher asks the class to “write a story that comes to mind. Something creative of any kind.” Drawing on her experience as an elementary school educator, Hayes compassionately imagines the at times paralyzing despair students like Garrett experience (whose “brain sees numbers and patterns the best”) when they’re tasked with an unstructured writing prompt. Touchingly, though, Get Out Your Paper also demonstrates the wondrous results that can come from students like Garrett rising to the occasion. As his peers begin their assignment, Garrett stares at a blank page, unable to think of anything except what he would rather be doing instead of writing, like “science or math” or even unpleasant tasks, like babysitting his younger brother, taking out the trash, or even getting “an itchy red rash”. Steder’s illustrations of these hypothetically more tolerable tasks are expressive, vibrant, and imbued with characteristics of Garrett’s personality. When Garrett starts to panic about his empty page, Steder cleverly draws a scribbling, chaotic landscape of mental claustrophobia that reflects Garrett’s inner turmoil with clarity and empathetic power.
In imagining tasks he would rather be doing, Garrett unwittingly builds a narrative of his own self: a caring, helpful, adventurous son, student, friend, brother, and, most importantly, a “one-of-a-kind” person. Though centered on a seemingly mundane classroom exercise, Hayes’s story packs profound lessons and demonstrates the transformations students experience in their intellectual capacity and self-esteem when they step outside their comfort zones. Young students who suffer from scholastic apathy or insecurities regarding school work will see a kindred spirit in Garrett and may find his unorthodox storytelling refreshing and inspiring.
Takeaway: Fun, inspiring story about a young student finding his voice during a writing assignment
Comparable Titles: Corinna Luyken’s The Book of Mistakes, Jolene Gutiérrez’s Too Much!
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
