Meet the Dullards 
by Sara Pennypacker

  

Pennypacker, S. (2015). Meet the Dullards. New York, NY: Balzer + Bray.

Meet the Dullards, the world's most boring family, and mom and dad have every intention of keeping it that way.  Children will love following along as the children test their limits by reading books (gasp!), playing outside and asking to go to school.  When a snail slides across the drive way, that is it.  Mr. and Mrs. Dullard exclaim they have had enough of this "circus" and decide it's time to move.  Their children should only be exposed to the more mundane things in life such as eating plain, flavorless ice cream, watching an unplugged television and watching paint dry.  While the family may be "dull" the book is anything but.

Evaluation Criteria: Characters

Oddly enough, what is so fascinating about the Dullards is just how dull they actually are.  Mom and dad continue to strive for the ultimate boring existence for their children.  None of that reading and thinking nonsense or flavored ice cream for this family.  They are bound and determined to ensure that their children are protected from any and all excitement that the real world has to offer.

Visual Element: Color

Daniel Salmieri uses colored pencils to create the dull and monotonous scenes that is the Dullard’s world.  They are perfectly content in their world of grays, browns and beige.  The Dullard children however, and readers alike, find themselves drawn to the outside world full of bright colors and excitement.