I have to admit, Il Sung Na's illustration style gives me almost physical pleasure. I feel that it's important for me to say that her delicate, powdery sprays of intense color underlaying the sweetest, finest scratchy ink lines are like getting my hair brushed by a small child. One of my small children, of course - I may be a little odd but I don't actually solicit random children to brush my hair, come on!
And then I open the book. No, seriously, I'm still talking about the cover here.
The endpapers made me gasp. Eighteen colorful, patterned umbrellas, in brilliant but transparent watercolors, simple and gorgeous. If they were tiles, I'd have the backsplash for my kitchen.
There is an elephant. There is an umbrella. The elephant doesn't know what the umbrella is or what it does. The elephant follows several reasonable paths of inquiry - asking his friends, experimenting with it in various ways. Modeling excellent investigatory behaviors. And then it starts raining.
Love!
Yeah I also really loved this one. I'm planning on using it in storytime with "Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing" and "No! That's Wrong" by Zhaohua Ji.
Posted by: Jo | Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 03:00 PM