Order here | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | Download free activities here
NPR's 2017 Great Reads
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2017
Booklist Editors' Choice Best Books for Youth of 2017
Society of Illustrators Annual 60
Oops! When Lola the armadillo accidentally knocks a jug of juice all over her parents’ best chair, it’s a calamity, a catastrophe, a FIASCO! She panics and decides to run away to the library. Along the way, she gathers a group of equally alarmed friends who have gotten into similar pickles. But they’re not the only ones in trouble: a stoat’s snarled in spaghetti, a bull’s broken a whole china shop, a llama’s up a tree, and someone should tell that platypus to watch out for that hose! It’s the end of the world! Or is it? While “sorry” still might be the hardest word, this silly and sincere book will help readers realize that making a mistake isn’t a disaster. And Lola just might find that a small accident can snowball into a big opportunity for forgiveness — of herself and others.
"completely nuts and completely charming."—Travis Jonker, School Library Journal
"To enjoy this book fully it is good to have a fine eye for meticulously crafted chaos. . . When we own up and take responsibility for our actions, words, and deeds, only then can we begin to make amends. Heady stuff for a book this whimsical and downright funny, but there you are. A delight from start to finish with a message worth considering, kids and parents alike will get a lot out of what Tsurumi’s serving here. A classic in the making."—Betsy Bird, Fuse #8, School Library Journal
"There are kids who seem to court trouble, and there are kids who live in fear of doing anything even vaguely wrong. Those junior catastrophizers populate this groovy debut, in which a bug-eyed armadillo named Lola sets off a raucous chain of events when she knocks over a pitcher of fruit punch. Mortified, she flees to the library, planning to hide there “till I’m a grownup.” En route she’s joined by creatures escaping their own disasters. The action is largely in the thickly detailed images, lending an updated Richard Scarry-style vibe."—New York Times Book Review
“The pandemonium accelerates to intentionally and very funny hyperbolic proportions—it’s not easy to keep such chaos as effortless to follow with one’s eyes as Tsurumi makes it —with an entire town of creatures unable to accept, at least until the end, that sometimes accidents happen; you can accept this; and then you can try to fix it. I can’t wait to see what Tsurumi does next. Bonus: There’s a surprise under the dustjacket."—Julie Danielson, Kirkus
"This useful message is simply and effectively conveyed through the minimal text, but it’s the detailed, humorous illustrations that will fascinate and engage readers and viewers. Using graphite and digital color, Tsurumi sets the vibrant and messily unspooling chains of calamities against a tidily contained world and restful, clean white space. Kids who love Richard Scarry–style layouts or Rube Goldberg machines will pore over these pages trying to piece together all the mini-events . . ."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
“Besides honing visual-literacy skills, this is a neat vehicle for developing vocabulary, as pertinent themed words ("FIASCO!"; "MAYHEM!") are wittily incorporated into the comical illustrations as sound effects or speech-balloon dialogue."—Kirkus
⭐“Tsurumi comically gets to the heart of how children frantically worry about mistakes, and poring over the riotous illustrations is pure joy. This will delight again and again."—Sarah Hunter, Starred Booklist Review
"In her first picture book, cartoonist Tsurumi offers an ingenious and utterly hilarious take on this important moral issue. Her sprawling but precisely drawn and crisply colored spreads ... are utterly crammed with screw-ups that reward sharp-eyed readers"—Publishers Weekly Starred Review