Chu's Day

Chu's Day is Neil Gaiman's 2013 picture book for very young readers, illustrated by Adam Rex. The book is one of Gaiman's occasional excursions into the picture book format, alongside titles like The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and Cinnamon. The premise is built on a single comic conceit. Chu is a small panda. When Chu sneezes, very big things happen. The whole book is the slow build to that promised sneeze.

Gaiman has a real feel for what a picture book needs. The text is sparse, the rhythm of the prose is built for reading aloud, and the structure is built around the kind of repeating anticipation that very young children love. Chu's parents take him through a series of dusty places. A dusty library. A diner full of pepper shakers. A circus full of sawdust and animals. Each time, the reader is sure the sneeze is coming. Each time, Chu manages to hold it back. Until, of course, he cannot.

Adam Rex's illustrations are the other half of the book. Painted in rich detail with a tactile quality that almost feels like collage, the spreads give Chu's small panda body and his enormous suppressed sneeze the kind of visual weight that makes the eventual eruption land properly. Rex worked closely with Gaiman on the timing of each page turn, and the partnership is so tight that the book feels written and drawn by a single mind even though it is the work of two.

There are sequels. Chu's First Day of School and Chu's Day at the Beach continue the small panda's adventures with the same team. For families with young children who are starting to enjoy the page turning anticipation that is the heart of the picture book form, Chu's Day is essential.