Review by Booklist Review
One day, in a clearing in the middle of a colorful forest, there is a small something on the ground. The leopard thinks perhaps she lost one of her spots. The crow imagines a star has dropped a piece of itself. The bear thinks it's a bit of a horseshoe from a warhorse. One by one, the animals discover the small something and imagine the worst, running to warn the others, until the forest is full of confusion. In the end, though, it remains a mystery, unless the reader wants to take a guess. The oil paint-and-crayon artwork takes on a gorgeous palette and meticulous detail, down to the veins of the individual leaves of the forest and the plumage of the birds. The endpapers themselves are even exquisite. And while the open ending is unusual and may not be satisfying to all readers, the storytelling feels very traditional and multicultural, and there's a playfulness to its imaginative nature that is very appealing.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Iranian artist Dalvand (Mrs Bibi's Elephant) imagines a mysterious object on the forest floor: a small, jet-black lump that sits in a clearing "between trees that/ glittered green and red." In contrast to the black shape, the animals that approach it are shot through with elegant rainbows of color. A leopard sees the mysterious thing first; one of her spots has fallen off, she's sure. A bear decides it's a piece of a warrior horse's horseshoe ("The enemy was near!"), while an owl concludes it's a dragon's egg that might set the forest ablaze. Dalvand draws the imaginary visions, all of which have a whiff of Chicken Little--like despair, with detail as the animals, gathered in a thicket of multicolored undergrowth, become baffled and increasingly terrified. Another page turn reveals that these rumors are all in the past, and that the black lump is still sitting there, "something mysterious, something lovely, something magical.... What do you think that could be?" While the absence of a solution may feel disquieting to some, Dalvand indicates that he's eager to share his creative power--sometimes, he hints, books and grown-ups don't have all the answers. Ages 4--8. (Apr.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In a parable both timely and ageless, a mysterious item on the forest floor excites ominous imaginings in all who come upon it. Iranian author/illustrator Dalvand depicts trees and figures in shimmering, almost luminescent colors to make the item, a small black lump, look all the more enigmatic. A passing leopard thinks one of her spots may have fallen off, which is scary enough--but other animals' thoughts tend to the catastrophic. To a crow it's a piece of star that presages the sky's imminent collapse; a fox thinks it's a lost jewel that a murderous army is soon coming to fetch; and an owl sees it as the egg of a fire-breathing dragon. Even though a cat thinks the lump is just a bit of her "poo" and hastily buries it, the whole forest is left in a tizzy. Countering this natural tendency to think the worst, the author wonders if it's maybe a seed, or a piece of chocolate…or perhaps something lovely and magical that readers might be able to identify? Like Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing (2005) or, going further back, Tom Paxton and Elizabeth Sayles' The Marvelous Toy (1996), this may well stir some to ponder whether it's better to embrace, or at least to welcome, the unknown rather than to fear it. This German import is a simple play on a provocative notion, with art in pleasingly vivid hues. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
