09/23/2019
Yoon (Beastly Verse) illustrates 18 English-language proverbs with strong, powerful graphics. Prints in bright red and blue ink on rough cream pages give this lift-the-flap book a distinctive look. Her images play off the literal meaning of the words. “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” is illustrated with an image of a nattily dressed fly as it tries to extricate multiple feet from a sticky pool of honey. (The message that kindness produces better results than force is not the picture’s focus.) “Too many cooks spoil the broth” introduces, with the opening of a double gatefold, a hilarious, visual maelstrom of flying ham and spilling soup. “A wolf can change its coat, but not its nature” is paired with an image of a wolf on one page in fur with a deer leg, and on the next in knitted wool with a dead rabbit, a happy predator either way. (The strange “Liars and gossips are siamese twins” seems out of place, given its inclusion of a phrase that’s no longer in general use.) What Yoon may really be representing with these surreal, arresting images is what pops into children’s minds when they first hear these bizarre expressions. Ages 6–10. (Sept.)
Twenty-one aphorisms are illustrated in this handsome, artfully designed picture book...utilizing printmaking, drawing, a computer, and only two colors—Pantone red and blue—as well as flaps and gatefolds, Yoon offers readers highly stylized, often humorous interpretations of the sayings. Clever, challenging content paired with accomplished, unusual art.–School Library Journal, Starred Review
★ 11/01/2019
K-Gr 3—Twenty-one aphorisms are illustrated in this handsome, artfully designed picture book, from the familiar, such as "A watched pot never boils" or "You are what you eat," to the more obscure, "Big oaks from little acorns grow" or "All cats are grey in the dark." Utilizing printmaking, drawing, a computer, and only two colors—Pantone red and blue—as well as flaps and gatefolds, Yoon offers readers highly stylized, often humorous interpretations of the sayings. "You can lead a horse to water,/but you can't make it drink" depicts a tender cowboy gently leading his horse; the next page shows the disinterested animal turning away as the cowhand loses his hat and his footing. "A cat in gloves catches no mice" shows a dark blue cat with red eyes and four white gloves fruitlessly chasing seven shadow mice while a cut-out mouse hole reveals a single white mouse. Students will naturally want to try their hand at their own illustrations; there are so many other adages to choose from. It would also be fun to have students guess the saying from the graphic. VERDICT Clever, challenging content paired with accomplished, unusual art.—Barbara Auerbach, Cairo Public Library, NY
2019-09-24
A cast of eccentric humans and animals enacts 18 aphorisms in this interactive title.
Employing red and blue—and the range of tones that layering yields—Yoon has created a series of prints that will both amuse and give pause. On verso, a red-hot wall foregrounds "A watched pot [that] never boils" while four chefs on the recto, surrounding an enormous box of realistic-looking pasta, stare impatiently. (Skin color varies from literal white or black to speckled blue or crimson.) Flaps, die cuts, and a gatefold create anticipation and delight as surprises are unveiled in the ever shifting, surreal world. "You are what you eat" reveals a child's head transformed into a gigantic broccoli floret. The heat of the reds and the busyness of abundant textures and patterns are mitigated by creamy white backgrounds or deep, moody blues, as when a man in the night opens his black trench coat to reveal his store of stolen watches, illustrating "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." Yoon dishes up absurdity in the form of an elegantly dressed pig, a sense of danger with a rabbit-hunting wolf, and opportunities for comparison and reflection, as, for example, when the same conjoined figures are paired with the (unfortunate) choice "Liars and gossips are siamese [sic] twins," and, later, "Two heads are better than one."
This tour de force of concept and design will engage the minds and hands of a wide swath of ages. (Picture book. 5-12)
