Alexander has trouble falling asleep and begs his sister Lulu to tell him stories. ``How many?'' she asks. ``A million?'' ``No.'' ``Five?'' ``OK, five.'' Lulu begins her inventive, peculiar tales. Cross-eyed dogs, geniuses and bathing beauties pepper the landscape as Lulu weaves the familiar with the unfamiliar.
“In the middle of the night Lulu tells a string of short and larky stories; Kalman’s fanciful illustrations seem a happy marriage of Matisse’s colors and Roz Chast’s angular lines.”
– Publisher’s Weekly
“A young boy pleads with his older sister for some bedtime stories, and Lulu obliges with some brief, highly imaginative, tales about “four very tiny people…walking very fast…carrying little instruments;” Maishel Shmelkin, who “forgot to wear his pants;” and Max, a dog who “wanted to live in Paris and be a poet.” Child-like, but with a cutting, surreal edge, these pictures are wildly funny. While the book will have limited use in a group setting, there are secrets hidden here to fascinate children. They will happily scrutinize the illustrations, delighting in finding a dog on a unicycle, a tree-person, and exotic dancers. The funkiness of the drawings belies their sophistication. Children can use these pictures as springboards for their own creative artwork or storytelling, as they are involving and lend themselves to interpretation. The book design is distinctive. Scratchy sketches on chartreuse endpapers set the tone of the book, and white type on solid black spreads shows the children’s nighttime banter. Hey Willy, See the Pyramids is a free-spirited book that will engage children on many levels.” – David Gale, School Library Journal