Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #577186 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 3 Up-An astonishing fable in picture-book format. A girl moving through landscapes of hopelessness and isolation encounters an image of hope on the book's final page. Through the weight of her sorrow, readers conclude, on both intellectual and emotional levels, that living in despair is waiting for hope. Tan's sophisticated mixed-media illustrations include fantasy and dream elements, and subtle symbolism packed together with an array of art techniques ranging from complicated cut-paper collages to Drescher-like paintings, but serious. These complex pictures send visual impressions powerful enough to cause readers to gasp as a new page is revealed. The simple, direct text ("darkness overcomes you" or "sometimes you just don't know what you are supposed to do"), often poetic ("the world is a deaf machine"), serves both as an entryway into the complicated illustrations, and as an enhancement to them. Perhaps too sophisticated in its point of view for some youngsters, this is nonetheless a book of amazing beauty, high quality, and distinguished artistry.
Liza Graybill, Worcester Public Library, MA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 6-12. "Sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to . . . darkness overwhelms you / nobody understands." This picture book for older readers uses spare words and extraordinary paint-and-paper collages to articulate the hopelessness, anxiety, and fear that accompany depression. Each lavish spread follows a young, red-haired girl through wildly imagined, nightmarish landscapes: a city scene, normal except for a hideous giant fish with bloodied eyes; a violent clashing of enormous ships and tidal waves hovering over the girl crouched in a tiny boat. The text is minimal, just a few words per page, but the themes and images are sophisticated: regret over missed opportunities; information overload; the search for identity and meaning. Fragile hope comes in the form of a tiny red leaf that's barely noticeable in each composition, but finally blossoms, at the book's end, into a blazing, glorious tree. Art students, teens, and even adults will be interested in these gripping fantasies, which capture dark fears and depression's terrifying, illogical power. Gillian Engberg
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