Hello, my name is Tita! I am a children’s writer and illustrator from Brazil and I am really happy to be writing for the prestigious My Book Corner.
For my first review I chose a wonderful wordless picture book by Alice Hoogstad. The book starts at the endpapers, where all we can see is an explosion of colourful sprinkles — or might they be candy? Or confetti? Turns the page… crayons!
A creative little girl is on a stroll through a black and white town. The girl leaves a trail of red crayon that calls the attention of the townspeople. She begins drawing friendly monsters and soon her colourful friends start jumping out of the ground and walls to follow the girl on her creative journey. A commotion starts amongst the townspeople and suddenly the whole town is filled like a colouring book parade!
The town looks quite dynamic despite the supposedly dull empty outlines of which it consists. It is easy to get lost in all of the small stories hidden in the detail. But it is only with the addition of colour that we start noticing the difference that it makes. The vivid monsters simply pop right through the pages as if they were inviting the reader to join them. As for the clever use of rainbow colour pencil (that fun single pencil with three or more colours embedded in the graphite), it is something that only those who had one would recognise. Both its name and nature are appropriate to this narrative, almost like a metaphor.
In this fun and eye-catching story, Hoogstad proves that there are no words to describe the power of drawings. As someone who grew up creating stories in drawings — and sometimes doing it on walls as well — I can deeply connect with the joy of this book.
