"Mice don't juggle, it's often said,
For juggling is too hard.
Yet I saw one juggling just today,
While balanced on a card."
It is always quite wonderful to see a new book from Wallace Edwards. His detailed and colorful illustrations are an invitation to all young readers to look beyond what they know and see what they can imagine.
Thinking about the phrase when pigs fly allows for the realization that pigs cannot. In Mr. Wallace's whimsical world, they can and do. The first entry is a poem about seeing pigs that actually do fly by, if we are lucky enough to be looking up at the very moment that it happens.
"I've heard it said that pigs can't fly.
They never leave the ground.
But I have gazed up at the sky
And watched the flying pigs go by.
They never made a sound."
The artwork shows confident pigs using various means of aviation transportation: wings, a cape, an umbrella, feathers, a spaceship and a well-imagined propelled tank. The pigs themselves are nattily dressed and very pleased with themselves.
The format for the rest of the book follows this pattern. A four-line poem on the verso, with accompanying spot illustration from the facing page. Besides the pigs, the animals include a penguin, a mouse, a turtle, a worm, a swan, fish, a frog, an alligator, an elephant, a rhino, a chameleon, and finally a cow. The author concludes with an ode to love and its enduring ability to hold each of us up.
There are many, many fine discoveries to make while reading the poetic words, and carefully considering the gorgeous (as always) art. This third book in a series that encourages wonder and imagination is a welcome addition to the first two, Can You Imagine! (Scholastic, 2021) and Do You Wonder? (Scholastic, 2022).
No comments:
Post a Comment