This. This right here is the bane of my current existence.

Not the darling little girl, that blasted airplane.

The pro side of camping out during the end of this renovation process is that we’re all outside pretty much all day, however, this plane thing spends about three quarters of its time stuck up a tree. Usually I’m able to get it out by throwing a large dog rope toy up and knocking it down from below, but a couple of days ago, we channeled today’s book, Oliver Jeffers’ Stuck, and the rope toy wedged itself on a branch. So my husband threw up a cross country ski pole. And then another cross country ski pole. And a Chuck-It. And a second Chuck-It. And about five large sticks. Each time something new landed in the tree, I referred to the book, in which a little boy’s kite gets stuck in a tree, so he throws a menagerie of increasingly larger items trying to knock it loose.

Oliver Jeffers is hands-down my favorite children’s book illustrator, an inventive and crazy-witty Irishman who’s written a bunch of others that I’ve profiled (see: The Day the Crayons Quit, The Incredible Book Eating Boy, This Moose Belongs To Me), and I won’t stop promoting his books, he’s wonderful. He’s clever, he’s original, and he’s quite handsome, actually, which doesn’t have anything to do with how awesome his books are, but it doesn’t hurt either.

So anyway, much like our own plane/tree saga, Floyd’s kite gets stuck in a tree, only to be followed by his shoe, his other shoe, a bucket of paint, a cat, and a ladder. Not a ladder to climb up and pull down the kite, mind you, but to throw up into the tree in an attempt to bring down the kite.

The things Floyd tosses into the tree become progressively bigger and more absurd.

Until finally, Floyd gets a bright idea (and note: he throws the idea light bulb into the tree as well) that gets the kite back once and for all.

Stuck is a perfect example of a children’s book that is unfailingly entertaining for adults as well, I have yet to hand it to another grown up who hasn’t gotten a kick out of it. Kids? Mine think it’s all hilarious, everything Jeffers has written.

Watch this video and you’ll fall in love with him, too.

*Disclaimer*

These aren’t book reviews, per se, but more profiles of the really, really good ones. Recommendations, really, for which I am not compensated. If you’re looking to buy any of them you can click on the the links and cover photos in each post, OR you can click on the little box over there on the right that says “amelie’s bookshop (buy the books)” and it will take you to my Amazon Affiliate store- you’re buying them as you normally would through Amazon, except that I get a teeny tiny commission. Or even better, walk on down to your local independent bookseller and support them.