Flashlight by Lizi Boyd (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Flashlight by Lizi Boyd Jeannette Hulick Boyd, Lizi Flashlight; written and illus. by Lizi Boyd. Chronicle, 2014 34p ISBN 978-1-4521-1894-9 $15.99 Ad 3-5 yrs In this wordless picture book, a child camping at night in a forest uses a flashlight to explore the flora and fauna of the area; when he trips over a rock and drops the flashlight, the animals take their turn with the light, highlighting various parts of [End Page 146] the child and eventually helping him find his way to his tent. Trees, plants, animals, the tent, and the child are outlined and detailed in a uniform light gray against the black backgrounds; more luminous plants and animals (birch trees, firefly wings) and the full moon are rendered in white while small details such as leaves and a luna moth are colored in soft tones. Within the light’s triangular beam, patches of landscape and various animals also appear in color. There really isn’t much of a story here, and the spreads sometimes suffer from inconsistency, especially in the coloring of elements in shadow. There’s a childlike charm to Boyd’s delicately detailed gouache paintings (printed on matte paper), though, and the game of following the flashlight and picking out the various animals as they move around from page to page (sometimes appearing in the light and sometimes in the dark) is an engaging activity for kids. Readers who are captivated by a flashlight’s power but who are not quite ready for Snicket and Klassen’s spectacular The Dark (BCCB 6/13) may find this a thought-provoking introduction to the light and shadows, and it would be a natural choice for a bedtime story hour or a handy precursor to a nighttime walk. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois