Comment

Nov 18, 2010Tilda rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
This story beings with a group of children sitting dejectedly on a curb while, in the background, a factory fills the sky about them with ominous black smoke. When a mysterious shining boy floats down from the sky he guides the children through a series of visually rich, colourful and imaginative landscape. The previously passive children are left enlivened and engaged by their journey. The confluence of simple, heavy line utilized in some scenes and to illustrate some of the characters and very elaborate full colour illustration is the central aesthetic concept of this book. I understand how this is meant to function visually and I appreciate that simple representation of the children facilitates reader identification. Weller's detailed full colour illustrations are attractive - particularly the more abstract and expressive scenes. However, I just didn't find myself convinced by the combination of these aesthetically disparate styles. It was all a bit jarring and a bit too self-aware. The text is secondary to the illustrations until the conclusion of the book when the text shifts to a relatively lengthy and sentimental poem. Again, a bit jarring. For me this was one of those efforts that works conceptually but is a bit less than successful in reality. This book is probably intended for an audience between seven and ten years of age but would probably be most enjoyed by adults who will never actually try to read this book aloud to a child or coax a child to read it on their own.