When a young boy approaches the Grand Master asking how he can acquire just a little bit of his knowledge, the Grand Master tells him to come back with a small carpet. The boy then goes to the carpet maker who sends him off in search of thread, then to the spinner who asks for some goats, then to the goatseller who sends him to the carpenter for some wood for his pens. Each person the boy asks has a specific need that seems to be leading the boy further away from the Grand Master, until he ends up back where he began with a surprising amount of knowledge. Ed Young’s marvelously textured collage and watercolor paintings suggest the ancient Middle Eastern tradition from which this traditional Sufi story comes. (Ages 4-7)

Ed Young once again turns a fable into a saucy collage treat in this tale about a boy who is just looking for a little bit of knowledge! Told he can have knowledge if he gets the Grand Master a carpet, he begins a journey on which everyone-from Spinner to Goatkeeper-tells him their problems. What about me? they demand. In the search for the answers, the boy discovers he has all the knowledge he needs.

A wonderful, circular tale that makes a terrific read-aloud, What About Me? is also a story with a wise moral. Ed Young's deceptively simple cut-paper images seem to jump off the page.