Happy New Year! Here's wishing you lots of books to read, write, and illustrate in 2015!
January's Book Pick is the witty and wonderful Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown.
In a world where animals dress formally and act with the utmost decorum, Mr. Tiger is bored. He wants to loosen up. So he drops down on all fours, sheds his clothing, and runs off to the wilderness. But the wilderness isn't his home, and Mr. Tiger misses his friends. Happily, things have changed a bit when he returns to the city.
The details in the art reinforce and add to the story. They bring out the internal conflict. Mr. Tiger's expressions perfectly telegraph his emotions--proper but bored at the beginning, followed by a yearning to escape, then he is thinking through his problem, until finally readers see his growing satisfaction as he leaves behind his polite manners and his clothes. Mr. Tiger's bright orange coloring stands out from the brownish gray drab of the other animals and the trappings of the city, and this allows us to focuses our attention so easily on his face. Later in the story, his coloring looks more at home in the vibrant wilderness, just as he now feels free to laugh, roar, and frolic.
This is a meticulously designed piece of bookmaking, from the dust jacket to the actual cover of the book itself, to the endpapers, to the distinctive look of the art, to the author's picture on the back flap. There is plenty here to sustain repeated readings, and much to learn about the art of picture book-making.
Peter Brown gave a moving speech at this summer's national conference when he accepted his Golden Kite award. Maybe he has a Caldecott Medal in his future??
--Lynn
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