Friday, October 7, 2016

PICTURE BOOK - A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston

2016, Candlewick Press
HC $17.99
32 pgs.
Goodreads rating: 4.11 - 921 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Endpapers: Scrolling books titles and authors
Illustrations:  "Hand-lettered, and the typographical landscapes were typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro.  The illustrations were done in watercolor, pencil, and digital collage."  Very little color
1st line/s:
"I am a child of books.  
I come from a world of stories
and upon my imagination
I float.
I have sailed across a sea of words
to ask if you will come away with me.
Some people have forgotten where I live
but along these words I can show you the way. ..."

My comments:  This book is not a story.  It's a collection of ideas about imagination, reading, and being swept away by words.  It's a poem for readers, an ode to book lovers.  The illustrations are held together and created by words themselves, parts of pages and texts and paragraphs from children's books - mainly classics.  I don't consider it a children's book (I can only think of a few kids I've read aloud to in the past that would sit still all the way through this), but a wonderful adult picture book.

Goodreads:  New York Times best-selling author-illustrator Oliver Jeffers and fine artist Sam Winston deliver a lyrical picture book inspiring readers of all ages to create, to question, to explore, and to imagine.
     A little girl sails her raft across a sea of words, arriving at the house of a small boy and calling him away on an adventure. Through forests of fairy tales and across mountains of make-believe, the two travel together on a fantastical journey that unlocks the boy’s imagination. Now a lifetime of magic and adventure lies ahead of him . . . but who will be next? 
     Combining elegant images by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston’s typographical landscapes shaped from excerpts of children’s classics and lullabies, A Child of Books is a stunning prose poem on the rewards of reading and sharing stories—an immersive and unforgettable reading experience that readers will want to pass on to others.

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