ORSON BLASTS OFF!

A much-praised illustrator files a Chris Van Allsburg–style flight plan for his first solo outing. After his computer croaks and he’s finished jumping up and down, young Orson exchanges disgust for delight when his suddenly animate jack-in-the-box suggests a venture outside. “Outside? I don’t do outside,” is Orson’s first response—but soon he’s off on an eager trek to the North Pole, followed by a stormy sea voyage aboard an origami boat, and a quick tour of the universe in a cardboard rocket. The pictures take a front seat here, their combed surfaces and multiple color layers adding both a sense of motion and a dreamlike quality, while the brief all-dialogue text—in which Orson’s springy sidekick sounds remarkably like C-3PO: “Ten . . . this is madness . . . seven, six, five . . . madness, I say’—occasionally gives way to a wordless page or spread. Colón also tucks in some playful images, such as an actual pole at the North Pole, and a Big Dipper floating among the stars—all of which he feels compelled to explain at the end. Happily, this pedantic afterthought doesn’t sour the sweep and exuberance of Orson’s odyssey. (Picture book. 6-8)