Something from Nothing! The Whole Hole Story by Vivian McInerny

 

ZIA HAD A HOLE IN HER POCKET. THAT DIDN'T STOP HER FROM STUFFING SMALL THINGS IN IT--SPARKLY ROCKS, JUMPING FROGS, GOLFBALLS. SOMETIMES THEY FELL OUT AND GOT LOST.

But as holes do, Zia's gets bigger and bigger. One day the hole gets so big that it fell out of Zia's pocket. Zia doesn't think that was scary. After all, it could only be as scary as she could imagine.

"I HATE SCARY STORIES!" ZIA SAID.

So she imagines it as a fishing hole, where she catches a fish, and then a swimming hole. As she floats on her back, she imagines one fluffy cloud as a thirsty lion, who tries to frighten off all the other cloud animals. But they are all well-equipped with puns...

"THE GIRAFFES FOUND IT ALL HARD TO SWALLOW."

"WHAT BUGS ME," SAID ONE ANTEATER, "IS THAT I THINK THE LION IS LYING."

"SOUNDS LIKE A TALE TO ME," HISSED THE SNAKE, (who was mostly tail himself).

But their puns become no fun, so Zia dives deep down and pulls the plug on the watering hole, leaving her with nothing but a mudhole. When Zia gets mud, however, she makes mudpies, lots of them. But what to do with a big hole? BIG makes Zia think of elephants, so she spreads a blanket over the hole to make a deadfall trap, and sure enough, she catches an elephant. But now, what DO you do with an big elephant in a bigger hole?

But Zia is not wholly out of ideas yet, in Vivian McInerny's funny, punny story, The Whole Hole Story (Versify/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), in an expansive story of a girl whose imagination makes something out of nothing, which after all, is what a hole is. With the help of artist Ken Lamug's fanciful and outlandish illustrations, young readers will chuckle at the many forms a hole can be imagined and enjoyed and how Zia returns it to its proper place in her pocket by the book's end. Booklist is wholly pleased with this one, saying, "This charmer of a picture book takes an Alice in Wonderland approach to a young girl’s discovery of a hole... A vivacious tribute to creative thinking and play."