This Is Not My Story

This clever picture book opens in the midst of exciting sci-fi action: “As an army of flying saucers surrounded the tiny spaceship, its brave captain knew exactly what to do.” The tale veers in an entirely different direction when the main character breaks the fourth wall and interrupts the unfolding narrative. The curly-haired little boy, with a missing front tooth, at the helm of the spaceship politely appeals to the author: “I hate to bother you. I know you’re busy writing and all, but … This is not my story.” The writer balks at the revision request, but the protagonist maintains he has never flown a spaceship before and doesn’t even believe in aliens. Eventually acquiescing, the author admits, “Hmm, maybe you’re right. Sometimes my notes get mixed up…”

Rewriting the story completely, the author changes the setting and recasts the main character as “the quickest cattle-wrangler in the West.” Decked out in cowboy duds and surrounded by cows, the boy expresses his dismay at the new edits and declares he doesn’t want to be “Cattle King Carl” either. Witty speech bubble banter flies between the unseen, disgruntled author and the hero in search of his story. Throughout the creative writing and rewriting journey, many genres are explored, and the reject pile grows to include fairytales (“I could never slay a dragon. I mean look at this guy. He’s so cute!”), horror (“Whoa! I’m not a vampire – that I know for sure!”), romance (“Uh, I don’t think this is going to work out …”), and hard-boiled detective (“It was old Mr. Jenkins. He stole the money. Mystery solved”).

There are many zany details to pore over in David Huyck’s quirky, comic-strip style illustrations. Every time the main character stops the action and walks out, the background characters in the scenes have humourous reactions of their own: shrugging their shoulders in confusion; searching newspaper job advertisements; jumping out of the panels. When the illustrator goes on his lunch break, the little boy shivers in polka-dotted underwear until a bathrobe is procured.

At an impasse, the writer’s block seems to spell “THE END.” Just before the book is closed, inspiration strikes. Through collaboration and open-ended questions, the author and protagonist realize the perfect story has been with them all along. After the satisfying circular ending, a story-starter prompt is also extended to readers. Author’s endnotes define literary genres and explain the difference between fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

With superb pacing and laughter-inducing dialogue, This Is Not My Story is a playful, metafictional romp through the creative writing process.