The thick, black, paper-over-board cover suggests a sketchbook; in the adeptly controlled chaos within, Tullet outlines the...
Clever new metafiction from the prolific French artist (Press Here, 2011, etc.).
With a seeming nod to Pirandello’s absurdist early-20th-century play Six Characters in Search of an Author, Tullet introduces a literally sketchy cast, utterly discombobulated at having been prematurely discovered. “There are people here... / And they’ve opened OUR BOOK!” The characters (pink pig, wand-toting fairy, orange dog, green snake, amorphous stick figure and red monster) confer over how best to entertain the “very sweet” readers who’ve suddenly materialized. First they produce “a bit of background color” (a consciously banal tropical sunset). Concurring that they need a story and, ergo, an author, they remember that they know one! The pack descends upon Tullet. (Wryly, he plays himself, in photographed headshots atop a crayoned blue shirt.) Contrasting with the preceding slapdash, mixed-media tumult, the author’s orderly studio (replete with tools of his trade) is rendered in perspective, in thick black line. Pressured by his unruly creations, he supplies a sappy eight-page vignette to get them to clear out. Their negative critique provokes him to order them off (while conspiratorially enlisting readers to “Press HERE, please?” to turn off the desk lamp).
The thick, black, paper-over-board cover suggests a sketchbook; in the adeptly controlled chaos within, Tullet outlines the elements of a good story while supplying kids with plenty of inspiration to create their own. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7021-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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