[BOOK REVIEW] The Hueys in It Wasn't Me by Oliver Jeffers

Title:  The Hueys in It Wasn't Me

Author:  Oliver Jeffers

Genre:  Friendship / Fighting / Children's / Humor

Year Published: 2014

Year Read:  2016

Publisher:   Philomel Books  

Source:  Library 

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Nothing Objectionable)

I rarely read children’s books where the theme is how to deal with fighting amongst each other and how to solve it and it was surprising that I managed to snag a children’s book that deals with such a theme!  For this children’s book about fighting, I had read “The Hueys in It Wasn’t Me,” which is written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers and it seems to be a part of “The Hueys” series that Oliver Jeffers has created.

The Hueys may look the same and think the same, but that does not mean that they cannot disagree on some things from time to time.  In this story, the Hueys ended up having a huge disagreement with each other to the point where they do not remember what they were arguing about in the first place. 

Can Gillespie, the sanest Huey, figure out what the other Hueys are fighting about before things get too out of hand?

Read this book to find out!

Oliver Jeffers has written a truly cute book about fighting and how it can lead to being pointless at the end if the people involved in the fighting have no idea what they were arguing about in the first place.  I loved the way that Oliver Jeffers has made this story about fighting without getting into the violent details such as the Hueys punching each other and kicking each other as it shows that most fights do not necessarily end in inflicting pain on each other, but just arguing about a subject that they cannot resolve.  I also loved the fact that Gillespie is the only Huey who sees the pointlessness of the fighting and tries to figure out why the Hueys are fighting in the first place rather than participating in the fighting.  Oliver Jeffers’ artwork is extremely cute and simplistic as the Hueys are drawn as egg shaped characters with stick like limbs and I thought that this type of art style makes the Hueys look quite unique.  I also like the fact that the background is constantly shown as a white empty space as it gives more focus on the Hueys themselves and gives the story a simple atmosphere.

The reason why I gave this book a four star rating was because I felt that the story was a bit too simplistic (even though this book is geared towards smaller children) and I kind of wish that there was more substance to the issue of fighting that is being explored in this book.

Overall, “The Hueys in It Wasn’t Me” is a truly cute book about how fighting can become pointless if the participants do not have a valid reason for fighting in the first place and it would be a good book for children who want to learn how to resolve fights and how pointless fights can be.  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.