The Garden of-Abdul Gasazi), which robs the book of a contrast between the normal, everyday and the macabre; (2) his freeze-dry surrealism, which renders the turbulence as a static charade, or tableau; and (3) the paradox that imagined horror is more skin-prickling than horror seen—with a child's mouth agape. Van Allsburg's artistic skill seems largely confined to the devising of special effects—these largely dependent, in turn, on oversize close-ups and dramatic angles. Once their shock-value wears off, these are boring pictures—with no feel in particular (down to the inappropriately babyish toys) for a child's world.