The Exquisite Corpse Adventure

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is one of those "progressive stories" where one author starts off and writes one chapter, then passes it on to another who has to expand the story in their own way for one chapter, before handing it over to someone else.

Clearly you can see how this could quickly get out of hand. Deliciously out of hand. 20 separate imaginations, all poured into one story, trying to deal with the cliff hangers left to them by previous authors, that playful one-up-man-ship has led to a very funny, extremely entertaining story.

Those involved are:

M.T. Anderson

Natalie Babbit

Calef Brown

Susan Cooper

Kate Dicamillo

Timothy Basil Ering

Jack Gantos

Shannon Hale

Steven Kellogg

Gregory Maguire

Megan McDonald

Fredrick L. McKissack

Patricia C. McKissack

Katherine Paterson

James Ransome

Jon Scieszka

Lemony Snicket

Chris Van Dusen

The whole thing was organised by the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance (NCBLA) through their website read.gov. The concept came from the game that is played by families on long trips, children in classrooms and on camps, and has been floating around for quite some time. I remember playing the illustrated version of it as a child where a pages is quartered and lines drawn to mark where the neck, wrists, waist and knees will be, and an 'exquisite corpse' is drawn where no-one knows what the other parts of the body looks like. HERE is an example (I hope that link works).

Anyway, onto the book itself!

As you may know, I'm a collector of quotes and so I thought the best way to talk about this book is with the  help of a few choice quotes.

Jon Scieszka, being the delightfully dry, and lover of the absurd sets the whole story in motion, taking the opportunity to set the scene and finding a way to influence the rest of the story with his very short first chapter. One part in particular:

"If the train makes it over the last treacherous gorge, there is a good chance that you and Nancy and Joe will have to deal with werewolves and mad scientists, real ninjas and fake vampires, one roller-skating baby, a talking pig, creatures from another planet (possibly from another dimension), killer poetry, clues from classic children's books, two easy riddles, several bad knock-knock jokes, plenty of explosions, a monkey disguised as a pirate, two meatballs, a blue plastic Star Wars lunch box (missing its matching thermos), a ticking clock, and not just one bad guy but a whole army of villains, cad, scalawags, sneaks, rats, varmints, and swindlers. Also several desperados, a gang of evildoers, and one just plain bad egg."

I love it! He's effectively set out everything that's going to happen! 

Then, as the story progresses, there are some authors that stand out as just being brilliant! Kate DiCamillo, for one, had lots of moments that had me laughing out loud. 

Lemony Snicket, like you might expect, had a rather amusing disregard for where the story might have been going up to the point it fell into his lap, and he took it in a completely different direction. He also made a rather funny use of metafiction (to a degree, anyhow):

"Think how far we've traveled since that night on the train, and yet our journey is as confusing as mysterous as it ever was. It's as of our lives are being written not by a single, beneficent author, but by a whole team of authors pushing the story every which way, the way an Exquisite Corpse, is built from whatever scraps are found."

I won't go on for much longer. Hopefully you can see by now that this is just good fun. It's authors having fun, it's illustrators having fun, it's READERS having FUN! I laughed a lot while reading this book.

Just quickly, I'll mention that unlike the authors, the illustrators could see nothing other than the sections of the book that they were illustrating. It led to very different styles and interpretations (as is the point).

James Ransome

Calef Brown

Timothy Basil Ering

Seven Kellog

Chris Van Dusen

All In all, The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is a largely entertaining read because of its story, by this I mean both its narrative and how it was put together. I thoroughly enjoy some good old fashioned team work and not taking things quite so seriously. 

I should point out that if any teacher read this, there is a fantastic site HERE that is packed with classroom ideas and activities etc for a chapter by chapter break down of the book. 

4.5 Silver Stars

Find it on Goodreads