![]() ![]() Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review) There are small mysteries and deep shadows, figurative as well as literal, that stretch among Rudd’s provocative paint-on-corrugated packing box illustrations in this Australian import.With every visual detail a poignant counterpoint to the simple storyline, there are depths here for older children to plumb. Street artist Rudd’s textured paint-and-cardboard collages create a strong sense of a place (the blaze and shadow of the desert) and the people who live there.Without minimizing the clear references to economic and racial struggle, the words and images in this snapshot story pulse with resourceful ingenuity, joyful exuberance, and layered meanings. In her picture book debut, Clarke’s lines sing with sound and rhythm, evoking the “shicketty shake” sound of the bike on sand hills. ![]() Showcasing the fun to be had in a spare world, this book is just what many of us need right now. ![]() The dark, bright, and desert hues create a blazing-hot world readers can almost step right into. Dreaming and building, we see, go hand in hand no matter where you live. Clarke’s poetically compressed language hurtles joyfully along, while Rudd’s illustrations, made on cardboard boxes with spirited swaths of paint, burst with irrepressible life. ![]()
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