Fortunately

About the Book

“Fortunately one day, Ned got a letter that said, ‘Please Come to a Surprise Party.'” The reader sees an expansive pink background across two pages and a boy holding a letter, imagining a birthday feast. Turn the page and the picture is all grays and whites with a big black cloud overhead: “But unfortunately the party was in Florida and he was in New York.” So starts a series of double-page spreads that alternate between “fortunately” with colorful pictures and “unfortunately” with grayish ones. First Ned borrows and flies a red open-cockpit airplane. Too bad the motor explodes. Good thing he has a parachute. And so it goes, all the way to a happy ending.

Why this Book?

Its cadence makes this one of the great books for reading aloud. Children will join in with “fortunately” and “unfortunately” almost immediately. They also love to figure out why the color palette changes. And what an exciting plot for such a short book–Ned gets to fly a plane, which is enviable, but also encounters sharks and tigers (on the way to Florida?) among other dangers. In his Caldecott acceptance speech, Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret) praised how brilliantly Charlip uses the picture book format in Fortunately, always “bringing a surprise when we turn the pages.” Even though the surprise may only happen the first time, this gem endures multiple readings–fortunately!

Please don’t buy the board book version. Honestly, what are publishers thinking?