TOPSY TURVY WORLD
by Atak ; illustrated by Atak
Role reversals rule in this (mostly) wordless import.
From the title page, which depicts the head of a child/man (depending on orientation), on, a veteran German illustrator offers even not very attentive viewers a succession of silly switches. Penguins and polar bears share space with owls and moose, among others, in a stylized jungle scene; a rabbit aims a blunderbuss at a frightened hunter; firefighters battle a fountain with flame-spurting hoses; a giant lad takes his tiny parents out for a walk—and that’s not all. Though he paints in a crude style that suits the obvious, easy-to-spot swaps, one scene crowded with small cartoon and comic-book figures from Bart Simpson and Darth Vader to Batman—all with switched heads— adds a dollop of sly humor. The aforementioned gun, an Indian with a feathered headdress, a glimpse of nude swimmers behind a man retrieving a stick for his canine owner and other such “sophistications” are less clever than off-kilter, though. So too is the thoroughly dispensable nonsense rhyme (“I found it quite funny, / Until a snow bunny / Ate all of my paper / —’Twas quite a caper!”) opposite the title page.
An uneven U.S. debut for Atak, easy peasy for fans of the I Spy genre. (Picture book. 6-8)