Day: July 29, 2011

Book Review: Where’s Walrus? by Stephen Savage

| Tasha

wheres walrus

Where’s Walrus? by Stephen Savage

This wordless picture book has a great appeal for the youngest children and adults alike.  Walrus escapes from his small pool in the zoo, pursued closely by the zookeeper.  He hides in the most unlikely spots, posing as a mermaid in a fountain, seated at a diner counter, glamming up a window display, and much more.  Finally, he is cornered up on a diving board sporting a red swim cap.  What happens next is a satisfying close to this cheery picture book.

Savage has a tremendous sense of pacing in this book.  It moves ahead from one hiding place to the next, and then turns into a full story as the final pages turn past.  The story works well without words, helped by the skilled pacing and the ease of the storyline.

What really sets this book apart are the illustrations, done in bold shapes and bright colors.  They have a graphic quality to them and a modern edge.  While the book sounds like a Where’s Waldo type of book, it really isn’t thanks to the simplicity and style of the illustrations. 

This wordless dazzler of a picture book will impress old and young alike with its style and sense of fun.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Scholastic.

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Book Review: Bone Dog by Eric Rohmann

| Tasha

bone dog

Bone Dog by Eric Rohmann

Right before his dog Ella died, she promised Gus that she would always be with him.  After she died, Gus didn’t feel like doing anything, not even leaving the house, but he did.  He didn’t feel like trick-or-treating, but he put on his skeleton costume and headed out anyway.  But when Gus started to head back home after his bag was full, he passed through a graveyard where it got dark and windy and creepy.  In moments, Gus was surrounded by skeletons, real ones.  At first the skeletons thought he was a real skeleton too, but when they found out that he was a boy, they threatened to steal his guts.  Just before anything happened, Ella showed up as a skeleton dog.  But what in the world can a small boy and a small skeleton dog do to stop a crowd of skeletons? 

If that paragraph above read like a rather strange storyline, then I wrote it correctly.  This is not a “normal” picture book.  It has a wonderfully shivery, scary part to it combined with the loss of a beloved pet, and then a great funny twist at the end.  It is not a disjointed book at all, but rather one that is unexpected which makes for a fun read. 

Rohmann’s art is done in his signature style.  The thick black lines mix successfully with the deep and subtle colors.  What grabs the eye is Rohmann’s layout of the pages, where whitespace is used as more than space for the words to appear.  The style stays consistent throughout the book, but the perspective is intriguing and adds much to the book.

A strange and superb choice for Halloween reading, this book should be shared throughout the year too as a celebration of intriguing, unique picture books.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.