The World That Loved Books
By Christine I., Poolesville, MD
I can’t deny that The World That Loved Books is a children’s book. The story is simple, with few words and several silly puns. The difference between this and other children’s books is in the illustrations. Nearly every page bears an elaborately constructed collage. There are rabbits made of turtles, men made of flowers, and a rhinoceros made of delicate butterfly wings.
The text combines wonderfully with the art of the illustrations. Important words slither and snake their way across the pages, elongated by hyphens. Italics, boldface and changes in text size allow the words to flow like a lively, unrhymed poem.
On the surface, Parlato’s book is a short story about how people and animals become the subjects of the stories they read. To truly appreciate this book, the reader must explore each collage thoroughly and realize that books can impact their readers enough to alter their basic foundations.
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