Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
French author-illustrator Veillé creates a mischievous take on cause and effect in this paper-over-board title featuring collections of cartoons in eye-catching primary colors. Left-hand pages, labeled "my pictures," present objects, people, or animals that are transformed by various events. On one spread, a "cake," "octopus," and "pig" appear at left, but "after an elephant" they are obliterated, becoming a "splitch," a "splatch," and a flattened "piece of ham." Elsewhere, "bread," an "apple," and "cheese" are reduced to "crumbs," "core," and "rind" after lunch, and "after a cold" a "lebod" and "dobado" are restored to a "lemon" and "tomato," respectively. Unexpected giggles await with every page turn. Ages 1-5. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-This clever and humorous book introduces the concept of cause and effect through spreads of "before" and "after" images. A set of objects appear on one page under the title "My Pictures," while the next page depicts the outcome of an event. For instance, one page features a cake, a castle, an octopus, a pig, a pear, and a ball; the following page, labeled "My Pictures After the Elephant," reveals the aftermath: the ball is now a flat red object that resembles a pizza, and the pig has been crushed into a "piece of ham." Other events include a storm, a hairdresser, a battle, and a surprise. It is up to readers to ask probing questions about what may have happened on each page and to allow natural childhood imagination to tell the full story. The text will introduce youngsters to new vocabulary, but some of the effects may be slightly confusing and require explanation. The illustrations are crisp and successfully convey the objects' transformations. VERDICT The nontraditional format and humorous images will result in some giggles but also may create a bit of bewilderment. This book would be better suited for children who already understand the concept of cause and effect and are ready to expand upon it.-Kristen Todd-Wurm, Middle Country Public Library, NY © Copyright 2017. 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
This subversive French import riffs on the standard before-and-after construct with a crafty conceit and playful presen-tation. The opening spread is simple enough. On the left sits a grouping of seaside items, titled MY PICTURES, each labeled in loopy cursive. On the right MY PICTURES after the storm display the same items, now altered: the pail is a puddle, the slide is overturned (its label written upside down), and the parasol is almost out of frame. Subsequent juxtapositions up the ante with increasingly beguiling transmogrifications. A family spread features, on the left side, a boy, his father, and pregnant mother. On the right, after the baby, a screaming baby sister is surrounded by a vast array of infant paraphernalia, and the older child appears perplexed. A bedroom spread includes a monster and a mosquito on the left; on the right the monster is revealed to be a couple of coats on a rack, and the narrator, covered in welts, has become a monster (the mosquito is nowhere to be seen). While board covers, sturdy pages, and the picture-dictionary format may suggest early learning, do not be fooled: this conceptual compendium aims squarely at the elementary set with provocative delight. thom barthelmess (c) Copyright 2017. 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
A whimsical series of before-and-after images, from the author of The Bureau of Misplaced Dads (illustrated by Pauline Martin, 2015).The book is printed on heavy stock with board covers but is not exactly toddler fare. Within, contrasting sets of very simply drawn cartoons on opposite sides of each spread offer amusingif usually calamitouschanges by named but never-seen agencies. After a storm, for instance, a towel-clad "boy on a ship" becomes a naked (discreetly posed) "boy in the nip." Similarly, "after the elephant," a cake, an octopus, and a castle are left, respectively, "a splitch," "a splatch," and "a splotch"; food items are transformed "after lunch" to a few remnants (except for a plate of boiled spinach, which remains, oddly, unchanged); and "after the hairdresser," a billy goat ends up a multibraided "silly goat." Considering that the labels are translated from the French, Hahn merits a nod for the frequent rhymes and other wordplay. There's no overall sense of development or resolution to the arbitrarily ordered contents, and human figures, when they appear, are all white. Still, the comical contrasts between the befores and the afters will elicit chuckles, and filling in the betweens can only add to the fun. Droll, imagination-stretching ways to get from here to there, from this to that, from now to later. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
