Hidden Pictures

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I don’t know if I would have stayed with Mallory had I been Adrian. The lies were just too much and made Mallory a distrustful character to many she interacted with in the book, whom it was crucial to her success to win over. It's not complicated. It's fairly linear and I was happy to just sit with Mallory and hear her tell it. It was just classic, eerie fun. This would make a great movie!! Then we have the fatphobia. Constant little quips about characters' body size tied to their worth as a person. Most blatantly obvious when it comes to the MCs mother, who was unable to help her daughter with her drug addiction because she was fat (????)... which, literally makes no sense and is just fatphobic for the sake of being fatphobic. She loses weight later, though, so we know she and MC will heal their relationship. Great. It was really remarkable how a blue dress and slightly longer hair shifted my entire perception of you. Just a few subtle cues and my brain did the rest of the work, flipping all the switches. You used to be a boy. Now, you were a girl. Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

After Catherine injects Mallory with heroin to stage an OD but wait! it was baking soda (don't get me started even more lmao) and Ted Sr comes in and Mallory has the gall to ask him "why are you so afraid of catherine" miss Mallory lmfao PLZ MAAM I WANT YOU TO TRY HARDER The story begins as a bit of a slow burn, as Mallory and Teddy bond over imaginative games, and the drawings he sketches with the pencils he is never without. The Maxwells are thrilled, as Teddy’s only “playmate” before Mallory was his imaginary friend, Anya. But, as his pictures take on a more sinister tone, and start to become too detailed and complex for a 5 year old to draw, Mallory begins to worry. I was expecting something different than what I got with this book, but I still really enjoyed the book. I also doubled down on these creepy drawings. Can you find the hidden unicorns from Rainbow Valley around the city? If you’re like us and you love unicorns, this is the book for you.

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Not only is this book painting the LUDICROUS idea that any trans child is being forced to be so by their *woke leftist* parents as legitimate, validating this hateful idea that erases the experiences of trans kids who have healthy and open relationships with their parents and are given the freedom to be themselves, but it's whipping up fear in its target demographic, giving them yet another reason to be openly transphobic.

The transphobia comes out near the end, as the "twist" of this thriller. Turns out the child our MC is caring for was kidnapped by her Evil Atheist ParentsTM and forced to live as a boy to hide their identity and also, it seems, because they just wanted a son rather than a daughter. Now, there is so much that isn't ok here. La novela tiene alguna cosilla que sí te provoca levantar las cejas, pero no de espanto, precisamente. Lo del padre de Teddy con Mallory creo que sobra, pero es mi opinión.But mostly it comes down to the final few chapters going completely off the rails. Somewhere between "Here's Johnny" and a slasher movie. This was when I started rolling my eyes and couldn't stop (I probably looked like I was possessed by my own demon). Perfect for ages zero to three, this is a playful, oversized seek and find board book. From the bedroom to the bathroom to outside on a busy street and gas station, your littles will get to look for one or more items such as 3 trash cans, 7 green bugs, and 1 potted plant. The updated Richard Scarry picture books are wonderful choices to share with the little readers on your lap. One of the best things about hidden picture books (also called seek-and-find and search-and-find books) is that the books are engaging and are fun ways to spend quality parent-child time. From toddler to preschool to elementary ages, my kids love to sit and pour over these nonfiction activity books. Especially with their dad. This book is a house of cards, built upon flimsy right-wing dog whistles, hoping no one puts together the pieces to realize just how hateful it is.

I simply cannot get into it without spoilers so... SPOILERS ALERT. SCROLL AGGRESSIVELY TO THE BOTTOMAnya drew these. Not me.”I received a free ARC of Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak from Macmillan in exchange for an honest review. A wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

Teddy is a gentle, sweet, boy. He doesn't want to play with other boys and instead loves to play alone and draw pictures. But as the days progress, Teddy's pictures become dark and the work of someone much older than five years old. Where has he seen the violent things he is drawing? Is this little boy okay? Mallory tries to discuss Teddy's emotional state with his parents but they just brush her off and tell her to mind her own business. Mallory is caught between needing this job and wanting to do what is right for Teddy and she can't help Teddy if she doesn't have the job. Mallory is 18 months sober when she starts babysitting Teddy. One thing about Teddy is homeboy LOVES to draw, but when his pics go from awww how cute to SOS call the police, Mallory starts to wonder what exactly is up?

Fooled by the rating and GoodreadsBest of 2022 I jumped into this novel, expecting something good, something sensical. Boy, was I wrong.