PICTURE BOOK - Dusk - Uri Shulevitz

Illustrated by the author 2013, Margaret Ferguson Books; Farrar Strauss Giroux

HC $17.99

32 pages

Goodreads rating: 3.34

My rating: 3 (I actually liked this better than most of his previous work)

Endpapers: rusty orange

Title Page: illustrated in an oval, title in colored-in font (a nice example/idea)

1^st line/s:
          Winter.
          Days are short.

          Nights are long.

          Boy with dog and grandfather with beard go for a walk.

My comments:  The illustrations are cool; the day going from sunshine to darkness is illustrated really nicely.  We meet a few odd but interesting people, each with his/her own destination.  The lights come on slowly - and the reader soon learns that it's not just WINTER, it's the holiday season.  Depictions of lights in several cultures are shown.  Words are sparse and unexpected - grammatically and syntactically (have I just invented a new word?)

Goodreads:  One December afternoon, boy with dog and grandfather with beard take a walk to watch the sun begin to set over the river. When the sun drops low in the sky, they start home. Buildings grow dimmer. People are rushing. As nature's lights go out, one by one, city's lights turn on, revealing brilliant Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Christmas displays in streets, homes, and stores. A stunning picture book that's sure to be a winter holiday classic by Caldecott Medalist Uri Shulevitz.

When I Wore My Sailor Suit - Uri Shulevitz

Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2009
$16.95
32 pgs.
Rating: 4
Luscious vocabulary: provisions, destination, arduous, departure, valiantly, luxurious, disrupted, pelting, barrage, resume, sternly
Illustrations: 7/8 of page, boxed by white
Endpapers: Azure

A young boy dresses as a sailor and goes to visit his upstairs neighbor. They have a model ship - and his imaginative journey begins. He makes it through a storm and arrives on a jungle island. He escapes pirates and finds a treasure map. but when he feels like someone is watching him he "returns" to the room and sees a painting of an ominous-looking man, whose eyes seem to follow him wherever he goes. It unsettles him. After fleeing for home, the boy realizes something. Returning to the painting he says, "you can't leave this wall, you can't leave this room, but I can go far away on an exciting journey."

Bravo for great fanciful works, a great message, and lovely illustrations.

How I Learned Geography - Uri Shulevitz

For: Kids (just not TOO young)
Pub: 2008
Rating: 3/5
Read: Aug. 25, 2008
2009 Caldecott Honor


"When war devastated the land, buildings crumbled to dust. Everything we had was lost, and we fled empty-handed."

Accompanying illustrations by the author depict a very young boy with his parents. Shulevtitz states in his ending AUTHOR'S NOTE that he is four when they flee Poland, living in what is now Kazakhstan In the Soviet Union for six years. The story tells how they lived, in total poverty, in one room with another couple who were strangers. One day his father returns, not with the small amount of bread he has gone to the marketplace to obtain, but with a large rolled-up world map written in Russian. This map takes him for the next few years, via his imagination, to snowy mountains, burning deserts, wondrous temples, and cities of tall buildings. He dreams of being transported to exotic places, and this is how he survives.

The illustrations are pretty cool, beautifully drawn and colored. There's a little too much negative white space on each page for my liking, but the double-page illustrations of the bazaar and of his flying dream above the waterway make up for that, they're really great.

Okay. He was a little guy with a great imagination. But.....how did he know about all these exotic places? How did he know about stone carvings and papayas and mangoes and the shade of palm trees? It sure doesn't sound like they could afford books. It doesn't say that his father told him stories. I guess I want a little more information. The writing is simple, yes, but a little too sparse for me.

This book has gotten quite a few starred reviews, so it may end up getting awards. Yeah, I liked it, but there are others written this year that I like better.