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Visually stunning, tactile, and mesmerizing, this graphic novel is a debut at the summit from a self-taught Argentinian visionary.
Lorenzo isn't happy about moving. But in his new room, he finds an old desk with what seems likes hundreds of drawers. Each even has its own smell! Deep inside the desk, he finds a book and begins to read. When he looks up, he sees all kinds of curious things. Has the book come to life? Or is it something else? This is a graphic novel about observation, imagination, and the many incredible lenses through which everyday experience might be perceived if you read.
Guillermo Decurgez, "Decur," was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1981. He is a self-taught cartoonist and illustrator, and the author of Merci!, Pip� cuc�, Semillas 1, and Mi caj�n favorito. His work has been published in the newspapers La Naci�n and La Posta Hoy, and in the magazines Orsai, Fierro, free lyrics, Ineditadas, and �. He has also illustrated "Cents del globe 3," the board game "The Switcher," the "Mrs. Holle" stories, "El poroto m�gico," "The almost perfect crime," and "Ivan, the Fool." His paintings have been exhibited in France, Spain, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, La Rioja, Buenos Aires, and Rosario. Decur's English-language graphic novel debut, When You Look Up, will published in 2020 from Enchanted Lion Books.
Lorenzo isn't happy about moving. But in his new room, he finds an old desk with what seems likes hundreds of drawers. Each even has its own smell! Deep inside the desk, he finds a book and begins to read. When he looks up, he sees all kinds of curious things. Has the book come to life? Or is it something else? This is a graphic novel about observation, imagination, and the many incredible lenses through which everyday experience might be perceived if you read.
Guillermo Decurgez, "Decur," was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1981. He is a self-taught cartoonist and illustrator, and the author of Merci!, Pip� cuc�, Semillas 1, and Mi caj�n favorito. His work has been published in the newspapers La Naci�n and La Posta Hoy, and in the magazines Orsai, Fierro, free lyrics, Ineditadas, and �. He has also illustrated "Cents del globe 3," the board game "The Switcher," the "Mrs. Holle" stories, "El poroto m�gico," "The almost perfect crime," and "Ivan, the Fool." His paintings have been exhibited in France, Spain, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, La Rioja, Buenos Aires, and Rosario. Decur's English-language graphic novel debut, When You Look Up, will published in 2020 from Enchanted Lion Books.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
4 people are currently reading
613 people want to read
About the author
Decur
9 books17 followersGuillermo Decurgez, “Decur,” was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1981. He is a self-taught cartoonist and illustrator, and the author of Merci!, Pipí cucú, Semillas 1, and Mi cajón favorito. His work has been published in the newspapers La Nación and La Posta Hoy, and in the magazines Orsai, Fierro, free lyrics, Internazionale (Roma) and Ñ Magazine. He has also illustrated “Cuentos del Globo 3”, the board game “The Switcher”, the “Mrs. Holle” stories, “El poroto mágico” (The Magic Bean), “The almost perfect crime”, and “Ivan, the Fool”. His paintings have been exhibited in France, Spain, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, La Rioja, Buenos Aires, and Rosario.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
June 17, 2020
In retrospect, I was probably a bit too optimistic. Cast your mind back a little to when, for just a moment there, books for children began to experiment with their visual elements. We were seeing things like Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a massive tome of a title, win a Caldecott for best picture book. Books like The Arrival by Shaun Tan, which straddle what we think of as graphic novels (to say nothing of picture books as well) weren't just popular but critically acclaimed. It was exciting! The categories were falling by the wayside. Comics were getting respect and trying new things! And then . . . I dunno, man. I don’t want to say it all went stagnant since we’ve had so many wonderful books in the interim, but after that initial flush of creativity it was like everyone doubled down on staying in their lane. Picture books look like picture books and they’re rarely very long. Comics look like comics and inevitably they have the same print size. It’s rare that my little heart goes pitta-pat when I see something that’s different…. but never say never. When you least expect it, sometimes you’re lucky enough to be handed a book that is equal parts fable and mystery. A picture book and a graphic novel and an early chapter book and a bedtime story all rolled into one impossible-to-define package. I'm not even kidding when I say that When You Look Up by Decur gives you a deep and abiding faith in 21st century storytelling. Now if only I could figure out where to shelve it...
A boy named Lorenzo and his mother move to a big old house in the country. When he encounters his new room he finds an old roll top desk sitting on one side. Some light exploring yields a secret door hiding a large notebook. Inside are fantastical stories of all kinds. In the first (“The Bronze Dragon”) a little rabbit makes a mistake and almost pays a terrible price. “The Boot and the Hat” tells the tale of a cat that comes to the aid of the giraffe it so desperately loves. “The Factory,” in contrast, is a desperately sad and scary tale of a quail that watches its friends become consumed on the factory line where they work. At this point, Lorenzo begins to realize that there are real world equivalents to the things he reads in the notebook. Yet it isn’t until he reads the last story, “My Dream Voyager,” that Lorenzo cracks the mystery of the notebook and the truth that sometimes we don’t want to be rescued. We just want to be found.
Americans don’t like things that look very different. We’re quite enamored of things that, instead, remind us of other things. For example, we very much like it when our picture books pay homage to classic artistic styles of the past. We revel in art that emulates the artists we already love. But when it comes to art from other cultures or countries, something freezes up inside of us. It’s as if we fear to appreciate what we’re seeing. Because I am a librarian, I have a tendency to use my children as test subjects. As such, I read When You Look Up to my six-year-old son, wondering how he’d take the whole thing. I’ve mentioned before that librarians will have a hard time figuring out where in the collection to put this book. I’ve seen Baker & Taylor (our distributor) list it as a graphic novel, and I understand the instinct. It is, after all, very visual. But while there are occasionally panels and sometimes some speech balloons, this book can also feel like an extended multi-part picture book. Thanks to the look of it, my son was captivated from the start. I think it gave him more of an emotional ride than he was expecting. He was surprised by the sadness of “The Factory” and seemed to take comfort in both the last story in the notebook “My Dream Voyager” which, in turn, echoes the same bittersweet (but mostly sweet) feeling you have at the end of the book. Parents that give this book a try with their kids will find it to be exceedingly accessible.
Because each story in the notebook is accompanied by art made of cut paper, so too has Decur taken the time to make sure that while most of the book is all paints and colored pencil lines, the notebook’s stories are cut paper. Alas, the publication page doesn’t confess to the medium in which Decur is working. What we do know is that the art in this book really does use paint and cut paper. Moreover, Decur is a self-taught artist. That fact is extraordinary to me as his art style, while utterly unique, feels so self-confident and accomplished. And, thanks to the cleverness of his plotting, I loved the visual callbacks throughout the story. Some you’ll notice right away (like the boy scout outfit on the kitty/kid) but others make take a reread or two.
I could wax eloquent on the art all day long (and it’s hard not to when you have such a magnificent combination of styles, angles, panels, and points of view) but I think all the reviewers of this book will probably do that. Let’s just acknowledge as well the fact that you can draw pretty books all day, but unless the story inside hits home it won’t count for boo. The translation from the original Spanish by Chloe Garcia Roberts deserves its own little shout out. There’s a succinctness to the writing that serves the plotting well. But surprisingly (at least to me) it’s the plot that I may have loved most. This is the kind of book that’s clever without giving away evidence of its cleverness until you reach the end. The whole time you’re reading this you’re participating in a kind of mystery without even knowing it. This came to me as such a relief, particularly since early on the book strives a bit too hard to drill home the put-down-your-phone-and-experience-the-world messaging (Laszlo even tries to make a book's image larger with his fingers). All that sort of disappears as the plot picks up. And one could probably grumble that the storyline relies on an awful lot on coincidences (example: Lorenzo overhears two aides in a retirement community mention that one of the people there spends his days just cutting little pieces of paper and instantly he knows the man has a connection to the notebook). I wasn’t bothered by any of that. To my mind it’s just a clever way of having the universe show us we don’t have to be alone.
Every time I read this book, I discover something new on its pages. It’s the kind of story that rewards re-readings. But the real kicker? Honestly, this is one of those titles that is not only cool in appearance, kids will honestly like it. Don’t be put off by its attractive, literary look, oh parents of the young. This is the artistic beauty of a book you’ve been waiting for. And for those of you that have been desperately searching for a cool gift for a kid (the one that marks you as a special, slightly kooky person in a child’s life) When You Look Up is the perfect gift. Honestly, who cares if you don't know where to shelve it? A book that's quite a bit smarter and more beautiful than it has any right to be.
For ages 5 and up.
A boy named Lorenzo and his mother move to a big old house in the country. When he encounters his new room he finds an old roll top desk sitting on one side. Some light exploring yields a secret door hiding a large notebook. Inside are fantastical stories of all kinds. In the first (“The Bronze Dragon”) a little rabbit makes a mistake and almost pays a terrible price. “The Boot and the Hat” tells the tale of a cat that comes to the aid of the giraffe it so desperately loves. “The Factory,” in contrast, is a desperately sad and scary tale of a quail that watches its friends become consumed on the factory line where they work. At this point, Lorenzo begins to realize that there are real world equivalents to the things he reads in the notebook. Yet it isn’t until he reads the last story, “My Dream Voyager,” that Lorenzo cracks the mystery of the notebook and the truth that sometimes we don’t want to be rescued. We just want to be found.
Americans don’t like things that look very different. We’re quite enamored of things that, instead, remind us of other things. For example, we very much like it when our picture books pay homage to classic artistic styles of the past. We revel in art that emulates the artists we already love. But when it comes to art from other cultures or countries, something freezes up inside of us. It’s as if we fear to appreciate what we’re seeing. Because I am a librarian, I have a tendency to use my children as test subjects. As such, I read When You Look Up to my six-year-old son, wondering how he’d take the whole thing. I’ve mentioned before that librarians will have a hard time figuring out where in the collection to put this book. I’ve seen Baker & Taylor (our distributor) list it as a graphic novel, and I understand the instinct. It is, after all, very visual. But while there are occasionally panels and sometimes some speech balloons, this book can also feel like an extended multi-part picture book. Thanks to the look of it, my son was captivated from the start. I think it gave him more of an emotional ride than he was expecting. He was surprised by the sadness of “The Factory” and seemed to take comfort in both the last story in the notebook “My Dream Voyager” which, in turn, echoes the same bittersweet (but mostly sweet) feeling you have at the end of the book. Parents that give this book a try with their kids will find it to be exceedingly accessible.
Because each story in the notebook is accompanied by art made of cut paper, so too has Decur taken the time to make sure that while most of the book is all paints and colored pencil lines, the notebook’s stories are cut paper. Alas, the publication page doesn’t confess to the medium in which Decur is working. What we do know is that the art in this book really does use paint and cut paper. Moreover, Decur is a self-taught artist. That fact is extraordinary to me as his art style, while utterly unique, feels so self-confident and accomplished. And, thanks to the cleverness of his plotting, I loved the visual callbacks throughout the story. Some you’ll notice right away (like the boy scout outfit on the kitty/kid) but others make take a reread or two.
I could wax eloquent on the art all day long (and it’s hard not to when you have such a magnificent combination of styles, angles, panels, and points of view) but I think all the reviewers of this book will probably do that. Let’s just acknowledge as well the fact that you can draw pretty books all day, but unless the story inside hits home it won’t count for boo. The translation from the original Spanish by Chloe Garcia Roberts deserves its own little shout out. There’s a succinctness to the writing that serves the plotting well. But surprisingly (at least to me) it’s the plot that I may have loved most. This is the kind of book that’s clever without giving away evidence of its cleverness until you reach the end. The whole time you’re reading this you’re participating in a kind of mystery without even knowing it. This came to me as such a relief, particularly since early on the book strives a bit too hard to drill home the put-down-your-phone-and-experience-the-world messaging (Laszlo even tries to make a book's image larger with his fingers). All that sort of disappears as the plot picks up. And one could probably grumble that the storyline relies on an awful lot on coincidences (example: Lorenzo overhears two aides in a retirement community mention that one of the people there spends his days just cutting little pieces of paper and instantly he knows the man has a connection to the notebook). I wasn’t bothered by any of that. To my mind it’s just a clever way of having the universe show us we don’t have to be alone.
Every time I read this book, I discover something new on its pages. It’s the kind of story that rewards re-readings. But the real kicker? Honestly, this is one of those titles that is not only cool in appearance, kids will honestly like it. Don’t be put off by its attractive, literary look, oh parents of the young. This is the artistic beauty of a book you’ve been waiting for. And for those of you that have been desperately searching for a cool gift for a kid (the one that marks you as a special, slightly kooky person in a child’s life) When You Look Up is the perfect gift. Honestly, who cares if you don't know where to shelve it? A book that's quite a bit smarter and more beautiful than it has any right to be.
For ages 5 and up.
December 6, 2021
Menemukan picture book yang lumayan agak tebal ini dari unggahan kawan di snapgram instagram. Tidak punya ekpetasi apa-apa saat membaca ini, selain ingin menikmati art style. Dan ternyata diluar ekpetasi ku. Cerita dirajut didalam cerita bergambar yang mana diakhir mempertemukan dua orang beda generasi dan menjadikan mereka berdua sahabat. Aku sangat menikmati isi cerita nya, petualangan Lorenzo ditempat baru nya dan menemukan sahabat yang tidak dia duga, dan menjadi Dream-Voyager chasing his dream.
February 2, 2021
Dreamlike and wildly imaginative, this intelligent graphic novel will charm upper elementary students to adults.
Lorenzo is a thoroughly modern kid who is immersed in his phone and little else. When he and his mom move to a rambling house in the country, Lorenzo is unimpressed. But then he finds a mysterious notebook full of stories...
Lorenzo is a thoroughly modern kid who is immersed in his phone and little else. When he and his mom move to a rambling house in the country, Lorenzo is unimpressed. But then he finds a mysterious notebook full of stories...
August 18, 2020
This is not your typical picture book. Translated from the Spanish, it has a certain foreign film vibe to it, but it’s both imaginative and realistic at the same time. It’s also much longer than the usual 32 pages, and the artwork is stunning.
November 10, 2021
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#192
Savotiškai įdomi, vaikiška knygutė. Pats tekstas nieko ypatingo, su paslėpta mintimi. Realiai įvertinimą dar pakelia iliustracijos kurios kartais pasako daugiau nei pats tekstas. Nors knyga skrita vaikams, bet puikiai tinka pavartyti ir suaugusiems.
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#192
Savotiškai įdomi, vaikiška knygutė. Pats tekstas nieko ypatingo, su paslėpta mintimi. Realiai įvertinimą dar pakelia iliustracijos kurios kartais pasako daugiau nei pats tekstas. Nors knyga skrita vaikams, bet puikiai tinka pavartyti ir suaugusiems.
October 14, 2020
This was such a fantastic graphic novel. I honestly picked it up thinking it was kind of strange and I ended up loving it. The only thing odd about this book is that it's bigger than your average graphic novel BUT I think that it really lends itself to this book and makes it way more interesting. The visuals look much more satisfying on a larger page. This is a graphic novel that I think anyone could pick up and read and enjoy.
January 3, 2021
Lovely graphic novel by a self-taught Argentinean writer and illustrator. Loved the mystery element, the emphasis on creativity away from screens, and the idea that children can learn a lot from elderly people.
April 25, 2022
I’ve had this book on my to-read list for literal years, hoping the library would purchase a copy. I would check every few months and finally it appeared! But then the book languished on our library shelf for several weeks - I wasn’t sure if I would read it to myself or aloud to my kids. It’s large size made it hard to tell if it was a picture book or an adult book. Finally, today, I put it in our stack of picture books to read aloud and it was just wonderful.
How to even describe this story? It’s part graphic novel, part long-form picture book, part story-within-a-story. Basically, it’s everything that any reader could want. Yes, it’s a book for kids. And yet I enjoyed it at least as much, if not more than my kids.
This is a story of loneliness, of creativity, of friendship and the power of story. It’s in translation and the art is not traditionally eye-catching in the American sense, but it feels old fashioned and like a classic in many ways too. My kids sat enraptured the entire book, never too confused by the abstract elements, but pulled along by the thread of story. And the payoff at the end was absolutely worth it. The blending of stories, of lives together is beautiful and heartfelt. I will remember this book for a long time.
How to even describe this story? It’s part graphic novel, part long-form picture book, part story-within-a-story. Basically, it’s everything that any reader could want. Yes, it’s a book for kids. And yet I enjoyed it at least as much, if not more than my kids.
This is a story of loneliness, of creativity, of friendship and the power of story. It’s in translation and the art is not traditionally eye-catching in the American sense, but it feels old fashioned and like a classic in many ways too. My kids sat enraptured the entire book, never too confused by the abstract elements, but pulled along by the thread of story. And the payoff at the end was absolutely worth it. The blending of stories, of lives together is beautiful and heartfelt. I will remember this book for a long time.
February 12, 2026
Me encantó este libro. Alimenta la observación y la imaginación como parte de un mismo proceso que crece a lo largo de la vida. Desde las imágenes nos habla de la evolución y el ciclo vital, de cómo volver a sentir la luz con el color. La niñez y la vejez están en constante espejo.
Es una lectura muy sensible y emotiva 🥹
Es una lectura muy sensible y emotiva 🥹
April 6, 2023
Çizimlerin güzelliği mi desem, renk paleti mi, kolajlar mı yoksa hikaye mi… Hepsi bir araya gelip gündüz düşü gördüren bir kitap olmuş!
July 21, 2020
41/2 stars. For fans of Shaun Tan. A boy, mired in his cell phone moves to an old house in the country with his mom. In his room is large desk and inside a hidden door in the desk is a notebook filled with cut paper images that tell dreamlike stories. How those stories shift the boy and what they cause him to discover is where the power lies. What makes this feel non usa, in a good way, is the both connection between real-life, economic and personal events and the fantasy element and also the valuing of older people and the worth of their experience. I really enjoyed it :) A good book for a class discussion: what does the title mean?
September 7, 2020
This was such a fantastic graphic novel. I honestly picked it up thinking it was kind of strange and I ended up loving it. The only thing odd about this book is that it's bigger than your average graphic novel BUT I think that it really lends itself to this book and makes it way more interesting. The visuals look much more satisfying on a larger page. This is a graphic novel that I think anyone could pick up and read and enjoy.
December 31, 2021
This is an extraordinary picture book...or maybe I should label it a graphic novel. It's gloriously creative. I visualize not-yet-readers and young readers having great fun with it. Illustrations are fantastic. So exciting to see such creativity in literature for kids. PS The title is ever so subtle:)
November 21, 2020
“I didn’t want to be rescued. I only wanted to be found.”
Discovery, stories within stories, creation, and then finding. The book was intriguing with beautiful art in multiple styles. I highly recommended this title.
Discovery, stories within stories, creation, and then finding. The book was intriguing with beautiful art in multiple styles. I highly recommended this title.
November 8, 2020
read this with my niece and almost cried happy 2020
January 17, 2021
A superb, surreal, richly imagined world of stories within stories. Import from Argentina.
January 24, 2021
What this appears to be is a beautiful and touching graphic novel but is instead marred by an instance of a Black character depicted in caricature in blackface. Disappointing.
May 11, 2021
Katy rated it 5 stars.
December 29, 2021
When Lorenzo moves to a new home, the thing he's most concerned about is his wifi connection, since all of his friends are now in his phone. He spends all of his time glued to the thing ... until he finds something unique in the antique rolltop desk that's in his new bedroom.
A unique and lovely book with a quiet and quirky story to tell.
A unique and lovely book with a quiet and quirky story to tell.
March 23, 2022
this was a weird cute little graphic novel! i don't have a lot more to say about it but i did enjoy it more than i expected
January 16, 2023
A beautiful graphic short-story about book lovers, Art and how both can make two very different people meet.
Lovely ♥
Lovely ♥
June 7, 2023
Creative, beautiful, absolutely brilliant.
June 20, 2020
A young boy, Lorenzo, and his mother move to a home in an isolated, rural area. Despondent that “now all my friends will only exist inside my cellphone,” and used already to an online life that is suddenly now ending, the sense of isolation Lorenzo feels is compounded by the lack of furniture in the house. However, there is a large, mysterious object in Lorenzo’s new bedroom, which turns out to be something called a “roll-top desk.” Lorenzo asks his mother for the purpose of all if its slots, and its many small, medium, and large drawers.
She tells him that, once upon a time, people used to write letters, which required paper, ink, stamps, and sometimes other materials. His interest piqued, Lorenzo explores the desk more and discovers a hidden cabinet with a notebook inside filled with stories that Lorenzo doesn’t quite understand, but is fascinated by, and soon begins noticing parallels between the imaginary life of the notebook and his own, real experiences. (By this time, he’s forgotten about his cellphone.)
The stories Lorenzo reads are presented a combination of drawn lines and paper cut-outs, which further fuel his imagination of the possibilities of combining lines, shapes, and colors in ways that tell stories. Without going into spoiler-alert territory, suffice it to say that one day Lorenzo meets the author of the tales.
The story and illustrations are both excellent, as is Decur’s weaving of reality and imagination that strong conveys the excitement of discovery and creation. Highly recommended.
She tells him that, once upon a time, people used to write letters, which required paper, ink, stamps, and sometimes other materials. His interest piqued, Lorenzo explores the desk more and discovers a hidden cabinet with a notebook inside filled with stories that Lorenzo doesn’t quite understand, but is fascinated by, and soon begins noticing parallels between the imaginary life of the notebook and his own, real experiences. (By this time, he’s forgotten about his cellphone.)
The stories Lorenzo reads are presented a combination of drawn lines and paper cut-outs, which further fuel his imagination of the possibilities of combining lines, shapes, and colors in ways that tell stories. Without going into spoiler-alert territory, suffice it to say that one day Lorenzo meets the author of the tales.
The story and illustrations are both excellent, as is Decur’s weaving of reality and imagination that strong conveys the excitement of discovery and creation. Highly recommended.
August 25, 2020
Downgrading my review of this book. Others have noticed the illustration that appears to be black face caricature of the Black character moving a refrigerator. On more careful examination of the illustration I have to agree with that assessment.
December 5, 2021
Children's fiction but superb and imaginative storytelling with beautiful illustrations
October 14, 2021
Magical story and beautifully done. I keep thinking about this.
March 31, 2021
Childrens book. This book defies format classifications-- the size is large, about the same dimensions as a picture book, but there are way more pages than a picture book. We have it shelved as a graphic novel, which fits just about as well as anything else. It is a highly visual story but only some of the pages have the traditional panels and speech bubbles of the graphic novel.
Lorenzo and his mom move out into the country, where Lorenzo is forced to put down his phone. He explores his room, where an old roll-top desk is left from the previous owner. He is quite curious about it, as every drawer is empty but has different smells suggesting the former contents. At last he finds a secret panel underneath, containing a notebook full of illustrated stories. Lorenzo sits down to read the strange stories that seem realistic but are illustrated with animals. The bronze dragon is about a game of indoor ball that resulted in a broken lamp and a monster; The boot and the hat features a cat dressed in a scout uniform that saves the girl he loves (a giraffe) after she gets bitten by a dog, The factory features a crew of birds that work for a tough rooster boss until an accident injures almost everyone, and My Dream Voyager features a mouse lost at sea who "didn't want to rescued, only wanted to be found."
Both Lorenzo and the reader are curious about the creator of the stories as well as the real-life connections. Luckily everything ties up nicely and a meaningful human connection is made.
Lorenzo and his mom move out into the country, where Lorenzo is forced to put down his phone. He explores his room, where an old roll-top desk is left from the previous owner. He is quite curious about it, as every drawer is empty but has different smells suggesting the former contents. At last he finds a secret panel underneath, containing a notebook full of illustrated stories. Lorenzo sits down to read the strange stories that seem realistic but are illustrated with animals. The bronze dragon is about a game of indoor ball that resulted in a broken lamp and a monster; The boot and the hat features a cat dressed in a scout uniform that saves the girl he loves (a giraffe) after she gets bitten by a dog, The factory features a crew of birds that work for a tough rooster boss until an accident injures almost everyone, and My Dream Voyager features a mouse lost at sea who "didn't want to rescued, only wanted to be found."
Both Lorenzo and the reader are curious about the creator of the stories as well as the real-life connections. Luckily everything ties up nicely and a meaningful human connection is made.
July 28, 2021
Although the art is beautiful, and I love any book that challenges typecasting and book-shelving placement, with mystery that is not fully explained - I feel a bit lost at the end of this book. I also feel its art feel relies more on so many bright yellow pages as a design choice than desirable, but that's my personal take on it. My rating is actually 4.5.
Yet the story is haunting in a way that some lonely kids will definitely be drawn to read repeatedly.
The character who feels lost in a new place, in not having any power over the choice to move or the reasons behind this from his own perspective. The finding of something that only he knows about, his own secret, is a place to find his own power over his life, to make meaning by making.... and the meeting of a man who was once a boy like him in many ways, gives him license to continue to explore his dreams of all kinds - awake, asleep, strange, unexplained, and make his life have personal meaning open to interpretation.
In a sense this book belongs in the category of surrealism.
I'd like libraries and stores to have a section for art books that is specific to children. I found this in my local library in a section marked COMIC BOOK, which it most decidedly does not come across as, at least in this large format hardbook format.
Yet the story is haunting in a way that some lonely kids will definitely be drawn to read repeatedly.
The character who feels lost in a new place, in not having any power over the choice to move or the reasons behind this from his own perspective. The finding of something that only he knows about, his own secret, is a place to find his own power over his life, to make meaning by making.... and the meeting of a man who was once a boy like him in many ways, gives him license to continue to explore his dreams of all kinds - awake, asleep, strange, unexplained, and make his life have personal meaning open to interpretation.
In a sense this book belongs in the category of surrealism.
I'd like libraries and stores to have a section for art books that is specific to children. I found this in my local library in a section marked COMIC BOOK, which it most decidedly does not come across as, at least in this large format hardbook format.
March 2, 2021
Decur, the author/illustrator is Guillermo Decurgez, born in Argentina, has published and exhibited all over the world. Chloe Garcia Roberts is a poet and translator who lives in Boston. This book was translated from Spanish. And what a story it is! A young boy and his mother (see the cover) have just moved into a house with lots of space around them. The boy, stuck to his phone, asks immediately if there is wifi. He wanders into the house and his mother tells him where his room will be. There, taking up quite a lot of the room, is a rolltop desk. He's not even sure how to open it! Thus begins an adventure with few words and wondrous illustrations, all arriving at a very satisfying end. It's a terrific surprise with every page.
June 28, 2021
When a young boy and his mother move to a new house, the boy finds an old notebook full of stories that are illustrated with cut paper. The boy didn't have a lot of imagination before, but the stories set his imagination free (for better or worse) and he even starts writing and illustrating stories of his own in his own notebook. Happenstance leads the boy to a retirement home where he overhears people talking about a man who cuts paper all day. When he investigates, the boy meets the old notebook's author who shares the rest of his story and one last treasure hiding in the house. Three different illustration styles make this book a visual treat and you will try to pick off the cut paper illustrations in the old notebook.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews