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juushikaAnother set of spooky picture books. My winning streak has run out a bit, but all these (even the last) have redeeming factors. (In said last it's entirely that central tree. It's interesting, so many of the reviews are positive and the majority of those come from people who were terrified of the book as a kid—seems like one of those books that lodges itself in a child's imagination but, as an adult, the ... art....) And I'm excited about my next batch!
Title: Oscar Seeks a Friend
Author: Paweł Pawlak
Translator: Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Published: Lantana Publishing, 2019 (2015)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 379,040
Text Number: 1410
Read Because: this list of best Halloween picture books 2019, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: After complaining about picture book art with little depth or texture, this is almost too much of a good thing!--these are highly dimensional, highly textured collage/cut-outs; sometimes too messy for my taste but with a great overall effect: the rainbow vivacity of the "normal" world and the vibrant darkness of Oscar's skeleton world. The rest is pretty straightforward, another narrative about accepting oneself and accepting difference, only interesting for the inherent whimsy of Oscar's half of the cross-cultural interaction. Ultimately forgettable, but pleasant to browse.
Title: I Want My Hat Back (Hat Trilogy Book 1)
Author: Jon Klassen
Published: Candlewick Press, 2011
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 379,315
Text Number: 1412
Read Because: found on this list of picture books with dark humor, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: As with This Is Not My Hat: likeable, great deadpan morbid humor, but doesn't quite grab me. Klassen has lovely, earthy palettes and textures, but the lack of backgrounds unmoors the art and kills the atmosphere. The humor's a treat (and I enjoy the lightning bolt of realization even more than yon controversial morbid ending), but the plotting again feels gimmicky. That's not really a big drawback in a picture book, but I read plenty of relatively simplistic picture books which do click for me; maybe Klassen just isn't to my taste.
Title: The Ghost-Eye Tree
Author: Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Illustrator: Ted Rand
Published: Henry Holt & Company, 1985
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 379,345
Text Number: 1413
Read Because: found on this list of spooky picture books, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: You know those 1940s advertisements featuring photorealistic illustrations of cherubic, uncannily over-expressive kids in full color? Like that, only darker watercolors, and at the heart of the narrative is an eerie tree watching the kids with its branch-framed moon, its nighttime critters, its drifting leaves. It could be an interesting tonal contrast if it felt intentional, but it doesn't, really--this leans hard into a nostalgia I just don't share or care about, and it overshadows the promising spooky elements.
Title: Oscar Seeks a Friend
Author: Paweł Pawlak
Translator: Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Published: Lantana Publishing, 2019 (2015)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 379,040
Text Number: 1410
Read Because: this list of best Halloween picture books 2019, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: After complaining about picture book art with little depth or texture, this is almost too much of a good thing!--these are highly dimensional, highly textured collage/cut-outs; sometimes too messy for my taste but with a great overall effect: the rainbow vivacity of the "normal" world and the vibrant darkness of Oscar's skeleton world. The rest is pretty straightforward, another narrative about accepting oneself and accepting difference, only interesting for the inherent whimsy of Oscar's half of the cross-cultural interaction. Ultimately forgettable, but pleasant to browse.
Title: I Want My Hat Back (Hat Trilogy Book 1)
Author: Jon Klassen
Published: Candlewick Press, 2011
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 379,315
Text Number: 1412
Read Because: found on this list of picture books with dark humor, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: As with This Is Not My Hat: likeable, great deadpan morbid humor, but doesn't quite grab me. Klassen has lovely, earthy palettes and textures, but the lack of backgrounds unmoors the art and kills the atmosphere. The humor's a treat (and I enjoy the lightning bolt of realization even more than yon controversial morbid ending), but the plotting again feels gimmicky. That's not really a big drawback in a picture book, but I read plenty of relatively simplistic picture books which do click for me; maybe Klassen just isn't to my taste.
Title: The Ghost-Eye Tree
Author: Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Illustrator: Ted Rand
Published: Henry Holt & Company, 1985
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 379,345
Text Number: 1413
Read Because: found on this list of spooky picture books, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: You know those 1940s advertisements featuring photorealistic illustrations of cherubic, uncannily over-expressive kids in full color? Like that, only darker watercolors, and at the heart of the narrative is an eerie tree watching the kids with its branch-framed moon, its nighttime critters, its drifting leaves. It could be an interesting tonal contrast if it felt intentional, but it doesn't, really--this leans hard into a nostalgia I just don't share or care about, and it overshadows the promising spooky elements.
