What Could That Be?

by Reza Dalvand, Reza Dalvand (Illustrator)

Overview

This beautifully illustrated picture book from Iranian artist Reza Dalvand leads readers on a guessing game that will inspire imagination!

On the edge of a clearing in the woods there's something mysterious lying on the ground. What on earth could it be? The raven thinks it is a piece of star fallen from the sky. The leopard fears he has lost his own spot! The cat thinks it's her poo and buries it. The fox simply has no idea what it could be. What do you think it is? Originally published in Germany as Etwas Schwarzes and translated from Farsi by Nazli Hodaie, this newly adapted English edition features a brand-new cover and additional spot art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338530193
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	11.80(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Reza Dalvand was born in 1989 in the Iranian city of Andimeshk. As a child he had but one idea in his head: to draw. After studying graphic design at Isfahan University of Art, he completed a master's degree in illustration at the University of Tehran. He has published more than 15 picture books in Iran, Europe, and Asia. He is a member of the Iranian Society of Illustrators and has participated in many national and international exhibitions from countries around the world, including UK, Japan, Iran, Korea, Italy, UAE, Ukraine, and Surbia, and his work was showcased at the Bologna Book Festival in 2018. Reza lives in Tehran.

Editorial Reviews

02/24/2020

Iranian artist Dalvand (Mrs Bibi’s Elephant) imagines a mysterious object on the forest floor: a small, jet-black lump that sits in a clearing “between trees that/ glittered green and red.” In contrast to the black shape, the animals that approach it are shot through with elegant rainbows of color. A leopard sees the mysterious thing first; one of her spots has fallen off, she’s sure. A bear decides it’s a piece of a warrior horse’s horseshoe (“The enemy was near!”), while an owl concludes it’s a dragon’s egg that might set the forest ablaze. Dalvand draws the imaginary visions, all of which have a whiff of Chicken Little–like despair, with detail as the animals, gathered in a thicket of multicolored undergrowth, become baffled and increasingly terrified. Another page turn reveals that these rumors are all in the past, and that the black lump is still sitting there, “something mysterious, something lovely, something magical.... What do you think that could be?” While the absence of a solution may feel disquieting to some, Dalvand indicates that he’s eager to share his creative power—sometimes, he hints, books and grown-ups don’t have all the answers. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-02-09
In a parable both timely and ageless, a mysterious item on the forest floor excites ominous imaginings in all who come upon it.

Iranian author/illustrator Dalvand depicts trees and figures in shimmering, almost luminescent colors to make the item, a small black lump, look all the more enigmatic. A passing leopard thinks one of her spots may have fallen off, which is scary enough—but other animals’ thoughts tend to the catastrophic. To a crow it’s a piece of star that presages the sky’s imminent collapse; a fox thinks it’s a lost jewel that a murderous army is soon coming to fetch; and an owl sees it as the egg of a fire-breathing dragon. Even though a cat thinks the lump is just a bit of her “poo” and hastily buries it, the whole forest is left in a tizzy. Countering this natural tendency to think the worst, the author wonders if it’s maybe a seed, or a piece of chocolate…or perhaps something lovely and magical that readers might be able to identify? Like Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing (2005) or, going further back, Tom Paxton and Elizabeth Sayles’ The Marvelous Toy (1996), this may well stir some to ponder whether it’s better to embrace, or at least to welcome, the unknown rather than to fear it.

This German import is a simple play on a provocative notion, with art in pleasingly vivid hues. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews