The Opposite

From time to time a book crops up that needs several visits to realise its potential. This is an offbeat story, where a small boy discovers he is able to make decisions to affect his own daily life, to defeat his demons. The illustrations are bizarre; and sparse, the spaces giving emphasis to the weird happenings. The front endpapers show a flowery wallpaper with dragonflies, and mixed within a bendy sort of creature, a humanoid with mischievous, devious, creepy facial expressions… lurking. Nate wakes up and finds this creature standing on his ceiling above his bed. He calls it The Opposite. Disasters befall Nate’s day, starting with cereal milk pouring up, splashing all over the ceiling then dripping down again. Opposite sits on the worktop, grinning, as Nate tells Mum it wasn’t his fault. Opposite has happened, and Opposite’s trick is to disappear at just the right moment. At school, Opposite creates havoc with Nate’s paints, bright colours on Nate’s head, on the walls, and even, green on the teacher’s face! ‘It wasn’t me!’ claims Nate. In bold the text repeats, yet again, ‘But the Opposite had already happened, and it wasn’t there any more.’ In the resolution, Nate discovers a way to control the Opposite; he is empowered, and gains greatly in self-confidence. Terrific.