Picture Book - Cicada by Shaun Tan

Illustrated by the author

2019 Arthur A. Levine Books

$19.99 (ridiculous anymore!)

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.12 - 1853 ratings

My rating:  2

Endpapers:  (Front) gray city blocks with no personality (Back) the forest and a beautiful sunrise/sunset

1^st line/s:  
    " Cicada work in tall building.
      Data entry clerk.  Seventeen year.
      No sick day.  No mistake.
      Tok Tok Tok!"

My comments:  This poor cicada works for seventeen years for low pay, zero respect, and is constantly bullied and discriminated against.  Okay, I get it.  The ending, yes, is a treat.  But the message is bleak and depressing and much more for an adult than a kid.  And what on earth is "Tok Tok Tok?"  Am I missing something?  Is that supposed to be the sound a cicada makes??  Sorry to say, this book didn't do it for me.  And the jury's out on how most kids would enjoy it.... (I really did like the little guy and felt so sorry for him for those 17 years!)

Goodreads:  From the visionary Shaun Tan, an inspirational story for older picture book readers and beyond
          Cicada tells the story of a hardworking little cicada who is completely unappreciated for what he does. But in the end, just when you think he's given up, he makes a transformation into something ineffably beautiful. A metaphor for growing up? A bit of inspiration for the unappreciated striver in all of us? Yes, yes, and more.

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

1^st 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.