The Shivers in the Fridge

By Fran Manushkin

Little, flat Sonny Shivers and his family only know it's cold and dark where they live, and whenever the earth quakes, a monstrous hand, reaching forth in a great flash of light, snatches away part of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525469435
• ISBN13: 9780525469438
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 12.3" x 0.4" x 8.8"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

5-yr-old loves this, so do I

My 5-yr-old read this at preschool and requested that we get it at home. It's a pretty offbeat book with a great surprise ending. Fun!

What a great book!

The text is a little complicated for my 2nd graders, but it makes a great read-aloud.

Very clever book; a great read for kids

I love the art in THE SHIVERS IN THE FRIDGE, and librarian friends of mine have told me that children are getting a kick out of it as well. They love its wit and sense of play. The New York Times also praised the artwork, saying, "Zelinsky's illustrations are pitch perfect for this comically surreal scenario. Young readers should enjoy puzzling out pictures of towering milk cartons and celery jungles long after they're clued in to the laugh-out-loud solution to the mystery." But judge for yourself! Here's a link to Mr. Zelinsky's Web site, showing a charming animation based on the book. [...]

The boy who stayed home to find out about the shivers

When I think of Paul Zelinsky I think of shiny gold thread spun onto spindles, thick lustrous hair cascading down a tower's wall, and maybe even a glimpse of early Americana involving a certain tall tale. Basically, Zelinsky's a picture book chameleon. You never know exactly what kind of style is going to erupt from his pen next. In 2006 he pulled that magnificent Emily Jenkins book, "Toys Go Out" out of his bag. This was soon followed up by "The Shivers In the Fridge", and is a colorful unexpected style and story. Author Fran Manushkin has quite a few books under her belt already, but I daresay that aside from the George Foreman picture book she helped out on, this may well be her best-known work yet. Good thing too, as the story is a rather engaging romp through iceboxes both cold and mysterious. Something isn't right but the Shivers family can't quite put their finger on what it is. Sonny, his mom and dad, and Grandma and Grandpa have been living in a perpetually cold and dark space for quite a while, and they're having a hard time remembering what it's like to be warm. This soon becomes the least of their concerns, however, when unexpectedly and without warning, an enormous hand keeps appearing out of nowhere to snatch various family members away. First Papa disappears when scaling Buttery Cliff. Later Mama meets a similar fate when she takes a warm dip in the fast solidifying "Emerald Lake". By the end, only Sonny is left. Gathering his courage, the young `un is snatched out of the cold ... to find his family members are all safe and warm. The Shivers are actually refrigerator magnets, and now they get to do what magnets do best. Stay on the outside of the fridge. A good thing they never had to deal with mold, eh? Now I'm gonna level with you here. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book and a great little story, but I've a quibble with the art. I know, I know. Criticizing a Paul O. Zelinsky production is tantamount to criticizing Picasso in his blue period. Zelinsky's meticulous attention to detail is legendary. The man has what it takes to bring everything from classic storytime singalongs to animated stuffed animals to rich, vibrant life. I can't continue, then, unless I confess something to you. You know his early work? I'm not talking his "Dear Mr. Henshaw"/"Strider" period, but the "Rapunzel"/"Rumplestiltskin" era. THAT, to me, was his best work. I loved watching the man replicate the style of the old masters. Oh sure, I could appreciate his cross-hatching pen-and-ink style too, but give that man a set of oils and watch what he can do with them. Whoof! "The Wheels On the Bus" always kinda stuck in my craw. Obviously if you've Zelinsky's talent, you're not going to imbue everything you illustrate with the same style. In the case of "The Shivers In the Fridge", Zelinsky creates a world both familiar and unfamiliar to children. His colors are bright, cheery, and constantly appealing to the old eyeballs. So

Starred Reviews from ALA BOOKLIST and KIRKUS REVIEWS

*STARRED REVIEW--KIRKUS REVIEWS, October 1, 2006 What if a family of five kitchen magnets were marooned in the fridge with only their cardboard box for warmth? Manushkin's sparkling mix of folkloric repetition, funny dialogue and--"PHOOMPH!!!"--perfectly chosen sound effects, cleverly withholds its punch line till the end. All day, the Shivers face predictable but rattling events: quaking rumbles, blazes of light, "monsters" that "reached out, reached out" to snatch away bits of the foodscape. One by one, each Shiver--by design or accident--is whisked off to an uncertain fate. (In a hilarious union of art and text, Mama cavorts in warm Emerald Lake--only to stick fast as the gelatin sets: "Emerald Lake, Jolly Whip--and MAMA!--were gone.") The antic mixed media spreads hum: Compositions agreeably evoke Paul Galdone with fresh, original garnishes. Zelinsky runs with the authorial metaphor, depicting the fridge contents as a skewed, teeming village--where a milk carton's top is a pitched roof, and broccoli's a tree. From endpapers on, hidden visual clues hint at the Shivers' magnetic personalities. Cool ingredients for read-aloud laughs. *STARRED REVIEW--Publication: Booklist, Issue Date: October 15, 2006 - Ilene Cooper Mother, father, grandmother, grandfather and one small boy are freezing cold. Although they vaguely remember another time when they were standing tall, now they must contend with darkness, earthquakes and monsters plucking things from their frigid home. It will be fun to see how long it takes preschoolers to figure out that the family is living in the refrigerator--and that they are magnets. Manushkin tells their story in colorful language and with a high humor. The family must travel through Egg Valley and beware of Buttery Cliff. Emerald Lake is swimmable until it hardens into a gelatin. There's a wonderful repeat in the story as one by one, each of the family members decide they must find a warmer place to live, attaching themselves to places like "the scary jungle" (a bunch of celery). The story's humor is matched by Zelinsky's inventive artwork that picks up on the wit and slyness of the text. As the family moves through the world that is the fridge, hands come out of nowhere, dreams of happy families mingle with stalks of broccoli, and the boy can stand on a mountain of grapes. Drawn with a frisson that might make readers shiver, these are pictures meant to be looked at again and again. Those who do may figure out how the family found themselves out in the cold.