Picture This... Board Book - Hardcover

Jay, Alison

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525468285 ISBN 13: 9780525468288

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 2002

Synopsis

Simple in format, with vibrant folk-art inspired paintings of everyday items and a single, large-type word on each page, Picture This . . . is the ideal first word book for the very young. But there is much more to Picture This . . . than first meets the eye! Each turn of the page reveals a new perspective on what has come before and gives a hint of what's to come. Parents will delight in reading this book with their children, finding visual surprises together and following the gentle story as it progresses through the day and through the seasons.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Nostalgic images of a country landscape disguise this picture book's visual complexity. At first glance, nothing seems out of the ordinary. British author/artist Jay provides a set of gorgeous illustrations in the American primitive style, each labeled with a quaint word such as "tortoise" or "umbrella." However, the author has more than a spelling lesson in mind. The sequence begins with the lowercase word "clock" and a picture of the face of a grandfather clock, a pairing that looks easy until "Hickory Dickory Dock" enthusiasts notice the hour (almost one o'clock) and the gray mouse atop the timepiece. Decorative images surround the clock face, alluding to the four seasons and to forthcoming pictures of, for instance, a "snail" and "cat." Later in the volume, a yellow tabby refers back to the opening image of the cat pictured on the clock and also directs readers' attention to new objects, including a fire engine-red "airplane" loop-de-looping in the summer sky. Meanwhile, other visual allusions (to Jack and Jill, for example, and the Tortoise and the Hare) draw on nursery lore. The concluding winter scene, captioned simply "snowman," again recalls the clock and reactivates the book's cycle. Jay sets all the scenes in a seaside orchard among rolling hills; her luxurious palette includes custard colorsDavocado green, robin's egg blue, vanilla white and peachy goldDand the paintings have the crackled surface of antique porcelain. Fans of such brainteasers as David Wiesner's Tuesday and Joan Steiner's Look-Alikes will be charmed by this pictorial puzzler. Ages 2-5. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

An oddly beautiful series of images makes an evocative word book for the youngest of children. Each page holds only one word and one painting done in a naf style with muted but luminous colors and a crackled-paint finish. The first is clocka sturdy wood-framed object with pictures in the corners, Roman numerals, and a little mouse peering out. In the next, the dog (he comes from a clock picture) is chasing a ball while a male and a female figure gambol in the background; they climb up the spring-green hill of the next spread, a pail between them. You can probably guess the next picture, which indeed has them tumbling after, but the ball the dog was chasing is the main image as it bounds through an open window. Cat and fish, kite and car, books and boots, all appear in homey settings made to loom large and mysterious by their hieratic placement. As formal as the pictures are, an element of fun is introduced by spotting miniatures of items from other pages. The seasons turn, too, as we turn the pages, so that near the end, bed finds the cat and dog at the foot of the bed where a couple sleeps, the headboard festooned with Christmas garland, and a bunny and teddy bear between them. There are no children in the pages, but toys and other accoutrements place the child in this universe, alongside the bespectacled tortoise and the automobile-driving bunny. Rich in imaginative possibilities. (Picture book. 3-6) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0525468285
• ISBN 13: 9780525468288
• Binding: Board book
• Number of pages: 30