Any Questions? by Marie-Louise Gay
Where do stories come from? How are books made? These questions that authors often get from children are the subject of this picture book from an author who has written and illustrated many picture books. Together the author and a group of children asking delighted questions create a story right in front of the reader. They take inspiration from the kind of paper the story is written on, the colors of the page. They talk about how ideas happen, and how sometimes they are great ideas but don’t become a book or that not all ideas fit into a single story. Ideas sometimes don’t appear and you have to wait for them, doodling and dreaming of other things until they arrive. And then something happens, and it starts to become a story! The children in the book get involved and the story takes a surprising turn. Luckily story telling is flexible and able to deal with wild purple monsters who come out of the woods. This is a great look at the creative process and how books are made, written at a level that preschool children will enjoy and understand.
Gay is so open and inviting in this picture book. She is refreshingly candid about the creative process and all of the bumps and twists along the way. The invitation to the reader along with the child characters in the book to be part of creating a story is warm and friendly. All ideas are welcome, some work and other don’t, and that is all embraced as part of creativity.
Gay’s illustrations continue the cheerfulness of the text. They combine writing in cursive with story panels and speech bubbles with characters in the book. It’s all a wonderful mix of styles that gets your creativity flowing.
Expect children to want to write their own stories complete with illustrations after reading this! Appropriate for ages 5-7.
Reviewed from library copy.
