Summary
Summary
When a young boy discovers an abandoned book on the side of the road, it opens a window to another world just as real as his own. But what happens when the two worlds collide? This imaginative companion to the Caldecott Honor-winning The Red Book works in a continuous loop, showing us that stories never really end. While fans of the previous book will relish seeing the story play out, prior knowledge isn't necessary in order to understand or savor this one.
Author Notes
Barbara Lehman attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, lived in New York City for many years and now lives in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York. The Red Book was awarded a Caldecott Honor in 2005. Barbara's work has been included in shows at the Society of Illustrators, the Chicago Art Institute, and the New York Public Library.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Picking up exactly where The Red Book leaves off, the boy who finds the mysterious red book at the end of that story takes it home to examine it in this one. Wordless panels show him looking through the pages at the islands that fans of the first tale will recognize, zooming in until he sees a girl fishing in a boat and finding the red book in the water. When she opens the book, she finds pages revealing the boy in his room. Illustrating the power of a book to connect, she uses her intuition (and a baguette and a seagull) to find her way out of the narrative and to her new friend's door who, in his excitement, drops the red book. The smart, clean art with smooth bold lines offers so much to observe and puzzle through while telling the complex story effortlessly without the use of text. This title stands alone but pairing it with the first work makes it all the more magical, particularly because the end brings the story into a breathtaking circle. The final page showing a girl finding the lost red book in the snow is from the beginning of the previous volume, deepening the intrigue around the red book and its time sequence while providing many opportunities for discussion and creative thinking. VERDICT Whether being explored for pleasure or for academic purposes, this title will add value to any library collection, especially ones that have copies of its predecessor.-Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The Red Book, Lehman's Caldecott Honor-winning wordless picture book, imagined a red volume that connected two children across a great distance. On the final page of that story, a child on a bicycle finds the red book. Lehman's sequel starts at that moment. The boy races home with his treasure and opens it to a page with a map of islands; an image of a girl in a dinghy comes into view, as through a telescope. She has a red book, too; two consecutive images show them holding their books up delightedly with the image of the other child displayed in a kind of hall-of-mirrors moment. The girl sets out to meet the boy, and both drop their books on the way in their haste. One copy is picked up by the girl who starred in the first story. Is it an endless loop? Who will find the books next? Lehman gives readers the satisfaction of learning more about the original story while leaving them with more to ponder. Together, the two volumes form a pleasing and perplexing Möbius strip of a story. Ages 4-7. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Any list of best picture books would not be committing heresy to include Lehman's The Red Book (2004), a wordless tour de force that lyrically illustrates the empathy-inducing and transportive powers of books. This also wordless sequel begins with the final pages of that book, as an African American boy on a bicycle finds the fallen red book in a gray winter city. Climbing to his favorite hiding spot, he opens it and connects with another child who's found a companion red book while rowing near a tropical island. Anticipation and joy build as Lehman brings the kids together in her warm, embracing illustrations, whose deceptive simplicity plays inventively with page and picture borders and whose complicated hues bring out the muffled teeming of a snowy city or the gentle waves and inviting blue sky around a balmy island. Readers unfamiliar with The Red Book will get the full trippy impact, as this story plays out the same ingenious and emotionally resonant beats. For those who already love the first book, however, there's something extraspecial. Just when you think Lehman is content to simply play out the same deeply humane story once again, she folds this tale into a closed loop with the first in a twist ending that will blow many young minds (and some not-so-young ones, as well).--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2017 Booklist