Day Twenty-Seven: I’m Bored
Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Simon & Schuster for Young Readers 2012
The potato was unexpected.
I did not read the inside jacket copy. I didn’t even notice the back cover. Browsing shelves, I saw the front cover, remembered it’s popularity when it was released, and added it to my stack of books. I dove straight into the reading.
A few pages in, after the self-pitying complaints of boredom, the child finds a potato and thinks it may be interesting. It isn’t. And it is, because they proceed to have an argument. The child has to prove that kids are not boring, stating that they are actually quite fun. The potato remains unconvinced, wishing it’d had a flamingo for company instead.
I flashed on an sequence of exchanges between Sherlock and Watson from BBC’s Sherlock…The potato suddenly adopted Benedict Cumberbatch as his voice talent. What was weirder was interposing Martin Freeman as the protagonist of the picture book.
The standoff between child and potato is hilarious—and effortlessly makes the story’s point about boredom. Children are capable of all sorts of activity/imagination. The ending is awesome. I rate the last pages of I’m Bored up there with the Hat books by Jon Klassen.
The title page bearing a heavy bold blue title sets a good tone. Ohi follows with sweeping expanses of white page. There is nothing to distract the reader. We are left only with the protagonist who is bored—and to be appropriate, rather boring herself. She leans, lays, pitifully wails her boredom. She has every promise of liveliness in those pigtails, sunshine-colored clips, striped and pink heart t-shirt. Ohi and character begin to fill the space with imaginative sets to accompany her costuming, props and declarative adventures. The story picks up, crams images on pages, exciting the eye.
I’m Bored is a marvelously designed experience, and that is the only subtle aspect to this highly entertaining read that I know every family could benefit from right about now. Place Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi timeless picture book next to your copy of Paula Bossio’s The Line, and have it keep company with your books by Jeffers, Willems, Klassen, Barnett, Reynolds and Santat.
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Michael Ian Black is a popular comedian who began his career with The State, a sketch comedy troupe he co-founded at New York University in 1988, which went on to have a successful run on MTV. […] His screenplay “Run Fat Boy Run,” starring Simon Pegg and Thandie Newton came out in 2007. Michael is also a stand-up comedian, who regularly tours the country. […] His first children’s book, “Chicken Cheeks” was released in January, 2009. His latest project is “Michael and Michael Have Issues,” a comedy series premiering in July 2009 on Comedy Central. Michael is married and has two children.
Debbie Ridpath Ohi is a published writer and illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Psychology, I worked as a systems programmer/analyst for Toronto-Dominion Bank for two years before stepping off the corporate cliff and immersing myself in the arts: writing, teaching piano, and doing some freelance art. Ohi created a Web resource for writers called Inkspot which won a bunch of awards and a newsletter circulation of nearly 50,000. Inkspot began as a hobby but soon became a fulltime career.
Her first picture book that she is writing and illustrating, Where Are My Books? debuts from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers in Summer 2015. Debbie’s illustrations appear in Naked! (Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers 2014) written by Michael Ian Black. She is also the illustrator of three Judy Blume classics (Freckle Juice, The Pain and the Great One, The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo) reissued as chapter books by Atheneum (2014) as well as on the covers of seven middle grade reissues including Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.
{images belong to Debbie Ridpath Ohi, their text to Michael Ian Black}
leslie d. 
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