This book was recognised in the Grades 3-5 category by the Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Award. It was recognised by the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award.

This book has been graded for interest at 4-8 years.

There are 32 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2004 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr) .

John Malam worked as an editor at World International before becoming a freelance fiction and non-fiction author in 1994. He is best known for writing the You Wouldn't Want to Be series for Wayland. Sally Anne Lambert has been an illustrator for over 20 years. Her publishing clients have included Ladybird, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Frances Lincoln, Jonathan Cape and Bloomsbury. She also has her own range of greetings cards. Candace Fleming is the author of several picture books for children. She lives with her husband and two sons in a suburb of Chicago.