Don't Cross the Line! - Hardcover

Isabel Minhos Martins and Bernardo Carvalho co-founded the publishing house Tangerine Planet, which won Best European Children's Publisher at the Bologna Book Fair in 2013. She has published nearly thirty books throughout the world and won many prizes.

Bernardo P. Carvalho and Isabel Martins co-founded the publishing house Tangerine Planet, which won Best European Children's Publisher at the Bologna Book Fair in 2013. His books have won numerous awards in design, illustration, and picture books.

"Originally published in Portugal, this raucous story blends metafictional elements with sharp political commentary that makes it clear that people―and that includes ghosts, aliens, spacemen, animals, and a newborn baby―won't suffer injustice. At issue: a guard, under orders from one General Alcazar, refuses to let anyone cross over to the right-hand page of the book. 'But why?' asks a confused citizen. 'Is there some terrible danger? Are we being invaded?' Nope, the guard explains, 'my general reserves the right to keep the page blank, so he can join the story whenever he feels like it.' Soon, the left-hand page is crowded with outrageously varied (and none-too-pleased) characters with bean-shaped noses and wide eyes, painted in vivid, crayon-box colors by Carvalho, who previously collaborated with Martins on The World in a Second and other titles. After a boy's ball bounces onto the empty right page, the floodgates are effectively open, and when the tyrannical general appears, he's no match for the assembled masses. Though the scenario is ludicrous and the execution playful, it's a pointed reminder of where power and authority lie."―Publishers Weekly

"An armed guard stands in the gutter of the book, refusing passage to the other side no matter how much the growing crowd pleads.

The story opens to a vast, blank, double-page spread, except for a lone, white guard and a tiny dog. A page turn reveals a white person walking into view from the left. As that person attempts to enter the recto page, the guard yells a ferocious 'STOP!' When pressed for a reason, the guard simply says, 'My general reserves the right to keep the page blank, so he can join the story whenever he feels like it.' More people (and creatures) come as the pages turn, until the left-hand side is packed. When a red ball innocently bounces across the border, everyone freezes. The guard allows two children to retrieve the ball, and suddenly the floodgates open. The crowd swarms across. When Gen. Alcazar sees the disobeying mob, he tries to arrest the guard, but the crowd overthrows him. This abstract tale can be read many ways. A musing on order versus disorder, tyranny and revolution, or perhaps the most prevalent of late―immigration. Childlike illustrations in colorful marker and comical hidden identities (a certain extraterrestrial really wants to cross to make a phone call) lighten the tone. The endpapers show the entire cast of characters (the humans mostly white), which adds an element of seek-and-find as well.

The takeaway is an important one: peaceful questioning of authority can lead to quiet revolution."―Kirkus Reviews