Review by New York Times Review
WITH EACH NEW SEASON of children's books, subjects seem to cluster. Not long ago, a slew of sloth books appeared. Then two blobfish books, in the same month. This year it's picture books that wear their hearts on their sleeves, displaying value statements, as titles, on their jackets. Recently, "Be Kind" and "All Are Welcome" have shared space on a Times best-seller list topped by the similarly didactic but less utopian "We Don't Eat Our Classmates!" Now four new picture books, whose illustrators are among America's best, arrive with almost matching titles: "The Dreamer," "Dreamers," "Imagine!" and "Imagine." Until recently, people who imagined were dreamers, more or less; now "dreamer" has taken on an additional, weighty meaning. Two of these four books contend with the dreams that immigrants harbor, while two just celebrate the liberating imagination that informs both art and science. You might guess which are which, and you'd be wrong. CASE IN POINT: Il Sung Na's THE DREAMER (Chronicle, 52 pp., $16.99; ages 3 to 5) has no political overtones. It's about a green pig whose dream to fly with the birds leads him (after running with feathers clutched in his fists doesn't work) to invent the Wright brothers' biplane. Repeated failures turn around only when he accepts help from quirky animal friends (a great pink elephant!), and they all consult with actual birds - lesson being that success requires cooperation and listening. Not stopping at plane flight, the pig sets sights on the heavens, and in short order lands on the moon in a spaceship, then shares his new knowledge communally, so animals in flying vessels soon crisscross the sky. Somehow, Pig still yearns for bird-dom, and the book ends where it began. I must confess to not quite understanding the story's ending. And the rhythm of its language is unsatisfying. There's a popular rule in picture book writing to delete all words describing anything the pictures show, but a pileup of sentences that leave so much unsaid doesn't sound like storytelling. Still, I love the illustrations. Out of Il Sung Na's brush flow the most wonderful shapes and colors; his designs land on the page as elegant abstractions (beautifully using the white of the page as shape and color), yet what registers most are vivid, personable characters. I hope Pig and friends return in a more fully resolved story, but I'm happy to have spent 52 pages with them, and I think children will be, too. WHILE THE CHARACTERS in Yuyi Morales's DREAMERS (Neal Porter/Holiday House, 40 pp., $16.99; ages 4 to 8) aren't the young immigrant Dreamers currently threatened by the United States government, the commonality is clear. All immigrants arrive with a dream, Morales says in her notes. The narrator of "Dreamers" is the authorillustrator, speaking to her baby son: "I dreamed of you, then you appeared. Together we became Amor - Love - Amor. Resplendent life, you and I." You can see that the writing tends to the florid. The art, too, is big, billowy, digitally collaging together copious poetic details of personal significance (and of varying scrutability). Gorgeous display is one of Morales's strengths, fully deployed in glowing scenes before mother and child cross a bridge into a forbidding world, all brown and gray. Despite their cold welcome, the pair eventually find a place of refuge, then delight and the promise of life and growth. This utopia is the library, filled with illustrated books. "Dreamers" is a paean to libraries, to reading and writing and creativity, a value statement I endorse wholeheartedly. "Dreamers" aims for the glorious and the poetic; it's big, passionate, crammed with detail. My own preference is for passion in smaller doses, with more breathing spaces. One element of detail that is not inscrutable is the inclusion of dozens of actual children's books strewn about this utopian library, tiny tributes to work that changed Morales's life, and a lot of fun to pick out and recognize. RAÚL COLÓN'S IMAGINE! (Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, 48 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8) could be seen as surrealist autobiography. It's a follow-up to his award-winning "Draw!," a wordless book that played games with depiction, featuring an artistic boy who draws his way into African wildlife adventures. In "Imagine!," a similar child skateboards from his Brooklyn home to the Museum of Modern Art. There, a character from Matisse's "Jazz" suite steps down from his frame, sets the boy dancing, and the two dancers lure a group of musicians (plus a dog) out of their Picasso, and another musician (plus a lion) down from her Rousseau. Art lover and art form a dancing band that merrily tours New York City (the Statue of Liberty's crown, a ride on the Cyclone, hot dogs from a street vendor) before heading back, jammed hilariously into a taxi. Colón's vibrant tableaus hint at other great art by Seurat or Manet. The story continues: Boy skateboards home, filled with inspiration, and chalks a mural onto the wall of an abandoned building. Late that night his art companions - from the museum, from his mural - float outside the window of this dreamer. This fine book provides not only exposure to art, and an example of art, but also an example of a boy - a boy of color, a boy in America - with a passion for fine art. These are all things that our culture could well stand to see more of. JUAN FELIPE HERRERA and Lauren Castillo's IMAGINE (Candlewick, 32 pp., $16.99; ages 4 to 8) is the perfect complement to "Imagine!": It's about a boy with a passion for words. It's an immigrant story, too, and a poem, pastoral at first: "If I picked chamomile flowers / as a child / in the windy fields and whispered / to their fuzzy faces, / imagine. . . . " On each new spread, a phrase beginning "If I," and ending with the prompt "imagine," carries us through the young boy's move from his rural village to a city, to a school where he will learn English, write stories, sing in front of class. He will fall in love with words, write songs and gradually mature in the pictures - and finally, he will read his poetry atop the steps of the Library of Congress, as the poet laureate of the United States. A question is posed: If he did that. . . . We turn the page, anticipating the word "imagine" that ended each earlier stanza, and are rewarded with "imagine what you could do." It's true: The book's author, Juan Felipe Herrera, is a former United States poet laureate. This "If I could do it, you can do anything" exhortation is standard inspirational speech material, so why did I not find it remotely didactic? Lauren Castillo's perfect illustrations - warm, deftly composed, with the sensual allure of woodcuts (she seems to have combined foam monoprints with ink and digital work) - are so captivating they might on their own overcome a ho-hum story. But this poem is a masterly picture book text: Its precisely chosen words create a world you have to listen to, to think about. When at the end you learn that you were being told this boy's story as a spur to your own potentially amazing one, the surprise and the gratification outweigh any sense of a lesson being taught. PAUL O. ZELINSKY, a Caldecott Medal winner, has written and illustrated many books for children. He is the illustrator of "All of a Kind Family Hanukkah," written by Emily Jenkins, which will be published this fall.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 23, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* A brown-skinned boy, living in a New York City borough, rides his skateboard into Manhattan to visit the Museum of Modern Art for the first time. After the boy views several revered paintings, his inspired imagination enables him to enter one of the pictures and then lead the characters out of three separate works of art. He and seven of the images, including a dog and a lion, dance out of the museum. They all spend the day experiencing some New York City highlights, such as the Statue of Liberty and the Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster, eating hot dogs from a street vendor and having a sing-along in a park. Colón's signature colored pencils and watercolor scratchboard-style illustrations bring the magical adventure to life. Rich colors and textures create paintings readers will want to spend time studying. References to famous artists and their work are sprinkled throughout: Matisse's Icarus conjures up a hat when emerging from his frame; the flat, angular shapes of Picasso's Three Musicians become rounded and animated; and Rousseau's The Sleeping Gypsy awakens to join the fun. The author/illustrator has combined his love of music and illustration to create a delightful, wordless tribute to the arts, with a magical touch.--Owen, Maryann Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Though Colón (Draw!) grew up in New York City, he didn't visit the city's art museums until he was an adult. The powerful idea of encountering original modern masterworks as a child, his author's note says, inspired this wordless fantasy. Using the deeply saturated hues and combed textures of his signature style, the artist draws a brown-skinned boy hopping onto his skateboard, sailing across the Brooklyn Bridge, and heading into the Museum of Modern Art, checking his helmet and board at the entrance. Inside, he encounters Rousseau's The Sleeping Gypsy, Picasso's Three Musicians, and Matisse's Icarus. He's awed by the paintings-Colón draws him with his hands clasped behind his head-and is overjoyed when the figures burst from their frames. After dancing with the boy out onto the street, they tour famous New York landmarks together-fast-moving stills show the figures in improbable N.Y.C. settings with humorous believability-before returning to the museum. Back in Brooklyn, the figures remain in the boy's mind, and he creates some magnificent art of his own. Colón's vibrant scenes make it clear that visiting works of art can breathe magic into the everyday and inspire further creativity afterward. Ages 4-8. Agent: Gail Morgan, Morgan Gaynin Agency. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-A young boy skateboards across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. There he encounters works by some of the most famous artists in the collection: Rousseau, Picasso, and Matisse. The enchanting figures leap off their canvases and join the boy on a tour of the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Times Square, and Coney Island before returning to their frames. On his way home, the newly inspired child envisions painting murals on the sides of the buildings he passes and falls asleep with his head filled with the images he's internalized. In an author's note, Colón explains that he never saw original art in museums as a child, but was overwhelmed with emotion when he encountered the paintings as an adult. His wordless picture book captures the drama of a personal artistic experience and the lasting impact it can have. The paintings he represents in his subtly textured pencil, lithograph, and watercolor illustrations are recognizable to those who know them and captivating even for those meeting them for the first time. -VERDICT A compelling introduction to the power of art and an irresistible invitation to creativity, to boot. Best shared one-on-one or with a small group, with plenty of time to pore over the brilliant images within.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A boy leaves a row house with his skateboard and rides through his neighborhood; readers can almost immediately orient themselves as he crosses the Brooklyn Bridge and arrives at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. From here Colns latest wordless picture book (Draw!, rev. 9/14) becomes a love letter to the experience of visiting an art museum: as the (brown-skinned) boy marvels at Matisses Icarus (identified in an authors note), the cutout figure peels itself from the painting to dance with him, its lithe limbs swaying with movement over the next several pages. Theyre joined by the trio from Picassos Three Musicians, then by the lion and just-awakened woman from Rousseaus The Sleeping Gypsy (these three works all capably mimicked by Coln). Rendered in watercolors and Prismacolor- and lithograph pencils, with his signature stippled and crosshatched textures, Colns illustrations hum with energy and jubilation as the characters cavort through NYC, ride the Coney Island Cyclone, play music in Central Park, etc. The boys new friends return to their canvases, but when he gets back to his neighborhood, he copies their likenesses onto a blank wall, creating a mural, and dreams of them at night. In the appended note, Coln informs readers that he never visited an art museum until he was an adult. Imagine! is his entreaty to expose children to art: Maybe their minds will explode and fireworks will go off and floodgates will openImagine that! katrina Hedeen (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In Coln's newest wordless tribute to creativity, a young child kindles his imagination during an art museum visit. A boy (gendered in the author's note) emerges onto the city street with a skateboard in hand. The young skateboarder drifts through the city and over a bridge, ending up at the Museum of Modern Art. Inside, he surrenders his skateboard at a checkroom and strides into the museum. Similar to his previous reflection on imagination, Draw! (2014), Coln's latest again challenges readers to discover inspiration through ingenious means. Wonder fills the boy's face as he observes the artworks adorning the museum walls, including Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians, Henri Rousseau's The Sleeping Gypsy, and Henri Matisse's Icarus. When the larger-than-life characters from these paintings break free from the canvas and join him, the boy and his newfound company dance their way out of the museum and onto the streets of New York City. What follows is a series of merry adventures sweeping past familiar landmarks like Times Square and the Statue of Liberty. Inspired by the author's museum experiences, the story leaps off every page thanks to the textured artwork brimming with buoyant body movement and cast in muted colors and striking patterns. It's over all too soon. A few goodbyes back in the museum, and the boy goes on his way, stopping briefly to leave his mark on the city's walls.Beautifully euphoric. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
