The Brother-Sister Battles: Ride by Stephen Gammell

There's no more famous battlefield in the brother-sister wars than the backseat of the family car. Caldecott illustrator Stephen Gammell's Ride, pictured in a 1930's-era sedan complete with suicide doors, suggests that Gammell is a grizzled veteran of backseat sibling squabbles himself.

Cheery rumpled parents ("Come on kids, Let's go!" says Mama. "Good idea, Dear!" agrees Pop.) set off for a relaxing Sunday drive, not without a bit of a warning for the grumpy passengers in the back seat, "Please, just this once, try to GET ALONG!" The pouting siblings waste no time starting the usual refrain:

"Hey, your foot is over!"
"Well, you're touching!"
Well, you're a poopy face."
Well, you have booger breath."

No doubt remembering Mama's warning, the brother and sister extend their quarrel only in their imaginations--but, oh, what imaginations they have. The brother envisions sending his sister off in a rocket with a "Hah, like I'm sorry I'll never see you again. BLAST OFF!" Not to be atmospherically outdone, the big sister retorts with "How 'bout a BLAST from YOUR SISTER THE TWISTER!"

The battle royal escalates silently until Mama sunnily remarks "Goodness, I'll bet we're hungry..." and passes out gooey, gloppy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches--with fillings that seem to have the makings for an enticing backseat food fight finale!

All in good fun and viewed with a bit of nostalgia for the days before minivans, seat belts, and drive-by car food, Gammell's pastel, pencil, and water color illustrations feature his inimitable splotchy, smudgy spattery style, with highly expressive kid faces that make you smile even in the midst of the mayhem in the rear seating compartment.


For more of Gammell's over-the-top illustrative humor, you've got to see his collaboration with author Jim Aylesworth, Old Black Fly, an alphabet book which is a perfect marriage of text and illustration that follows old black fly from foodstuff to foodstuff until the last satisfying "SWAT!" Read it, chant it, sing it, swing it, SHOUT it! It's just pure joy!