“The blind men and the elephant” reworked into a Zen koan.
A “little giant” with closed eyes asks the titular question, then sets out to collect answers.
Along with abstract and semiabstract visualizations in paint, ink, and fiber collage, Herbauts incorporates embossing, die-cut holes, and various shapes in smooth, transparent overlays so that the illustrations require touch as much as sight to apprehend. Many of the responses to the little giant’s enquiry are likewise as allusive as they are evocative: to a dog the wind is “pink, flowery, pale white,” but to a wolf it’s “the dark smell of the forest.” To a town, it’s the color of “curtains, laundry, clothes,” but to a window, it’s “the color of time”—illustrated with drawings of people with watering cans—and to tree roots (in a scene embossed with a rugged, raised pattern), it’s the color of “sap and pomegranates.” At last the “little” giant meets an “enormous” one, who assures him that it’s all of these together and creates the “wind of the book” by riffling the pages. The tactile elements are printed in very low relief, but they’re pervasive enough among the visual ones to keep blind as well as sighted readers (those of a more poetic or philosophical bent anyway) engaged. The answer, of course, lies beyond words or images.
“The blind men and the elephant” reworked into a Zen koan. (Picture book. 9-11, adult)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59270-221-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
This bittersweet tale takes readers into a dark, ancient woods in the American Northwest. A father and son make this forest their special place to commune with the wild, to visit with the creatures that live therein, and to revel in the mesmerizing views. One day they find spots painted on the trees, markings for loggers. The boy and his father and family ignite a small grassroots resistance to the felling of the trees. They fight for something they believe in—it is almost a sacred obligation for them—but they are unsuccessful: the laws governing private property prevail. The trees are cut and, luckily, the father and son find another stand in which to take solace. The Rands (A Home for Spooky, 1998, etc.) offer a bright fusion of the cautionary and the inspirational, and the artwork is effective in conveying the outsized majesty of the old growth. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5466-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
A picture book combines the exuberance of children and the drama found in nature for a sly lesson on power-sharing. Henderson (Newborn, 1999, etc.) lands on the wide reaches of a windy beach where young Jim expansively flings wide his arms and claims “All this is mine!” So it seems until the wind blows in a gale so violent that it smashes objects and tears “through the dreams of people sleeping.” An eerie series of black-and-white paintings shows the white-capped waves breaking ever higher and crashing inland; these are so frightening that Jim cries out to his mother, “The sea! It’s coming!” Happily enough, Jim and his mother are able to run up the hill to a grandmother’s house where they weather the storm safely. The next time Jim speaks to the wind, on a much quieter beach, he whispers, “All this is yours.” Large type, appealing pastel illustrations, and a dose of proper perspective on humankind’s power over nature make this book a fine choice for story hours as well as nature collections. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7636-0904-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
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