T
itle: The Tomorrow Book
Author: Jackie French
Illustrated by Sue Degennaro
Publisher: Angus & Robertson 2010
ISBN 978-0-732289393
This is a delightful book to get children thinking about tomorrow in a positive way, and suggesting books are the way to learn what to do. All sorts of interesting possible and impossible things can happen.
I liked:The text is easy for children to read, well spaced, and without confusing background.
The colour schemes of the illustrations are appealing and soothing.
The pictures themselves are clear and have lots of fascinating things to find in them.
It is great to have constructive problem solving in a children’s book.
I didn’t like:
The book is hard to fit on a shelf, being 25.5 cm square— and just a little too awkward to handle for children under eight—the age the book is most suited for.
The human figures have not-really-human heads of the sort that are popular in educational circles. These have the advantage for adults of novelty and art-naïve. Children may be used to them, I think they would prefer proper faces and head-shapes. You cannot love these characters I don’t think. I may be wrong.
Having said that, I did like the text on one page “Mum reckons my room’s a mess, but you should see the junk grown-ups leave all over the place.”
And some of the pages ask for ten minutes study, to find all the strange and wonderful creatures and inventions. They will make a child think, of what is possible and not possible, and different ways to solve the same problems. There are many things that a child will pick on as not possible, and feel superior at thinking of something better. And many things will set imagination going.
Reviewed by Valerie Yule
This entry was posted by vyule on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Book Reviews.
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