Book Review: The White Book
I love picture books that change how you look at picture books! Things like Press Here, Tap the Magic Tree, or the Pigeon and Chester books where the characters break the fourth wall. Or like A Funny Little Bird by Jennifer Yerkes or The White Book by Silvia Borando, Lorenzo Clerici and Elisabetta Pica where the white space is where the story lives.
The White Book is the story of a little painter who discovers some amazing things as he paints bright swatches of color across the page. Birds, fish, and even dinosaurs appear each with an unexpected consequence. Finally, the little boy finds something which is exactly what he is looking for, even though he probably didn’t know it when he started.
This book was originally published in Italy and it makes me chuckle a little to see the English language translation copyright date because it is a wordless picture book, only the title needed to be translated.
On the back cover it stats “I am a minibombo book” which means:
“Represented by Walker Books in the UK and Australia, and Candlewick Press in the US, minibombo is an Italian children’s publishing house dedicated to creating innovative and interactive picture books for little children and the grown-ups who read along with them. minibombo use very simple shapes to create playful picture book experiences, so that even the youngest of readers can recreate their favourite minibombo characters.” – www.minibombo.com
I think my little toddlers in storytime would love to see the magic of this book and it’s one I’ll be sharing with them soon, I think!
Twitter Booktalk (140 characters or less): A young painter discovers surprises as he paints – birds, fish, and dinos appear each with an unexpected consequence. @candlewick @minibombo
Title: The White Book
Author/Illustrators: Silvia Borando, Lorenzo Clerici and Elisabetta Pica
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Copyright Date: 2015
4 Comments
beckyginther
This looks adorable! I laughed at what you said about the translation copyright date. I came across a wordless board book once. It had both an author and an illustrator listed on the cover (two separate people). Thinking the author had it pretty easy on that one…
literacious
Lol! I was so befuddled with the translation copyright, but that’s an easy gig!
beckyginther
This looks adorable! I laughed at what you said about the translation copyright date. I came across a wordless board book once. It had both an author and an illustrator listed on the cover (two separate people). Thinking the author had it pretty easy on that one…
literacious
Lol! I was so befuddled with the translation copyright, but that’s an easy gig!