My Pictures after the Storm by Éric Veillé

Abstract

Reviewed by: My Pictures after the Storm by Éric Veillé Elizabeth Bush Veillé, Éric My Pictures after the Storm; written and illus. by Éric Veillé, tr. by Daniel Hahn. Gecko, 2017 24p ISBN 978-1-77657-104-8 $16.99 R* Gr. 1-4 Upending the notion that board books are for toddlers (except, perhaps, the Baby-Lit™ "classics," appearing on coffee tables and in adult birthday gift bags), is this imaginative romp, a charming and clever offspring of Word Play and Doodle. An array of simple objects occupies the left side of each spread, serving as a "before" image; the right side displays the same objects "after" an event. Apple, bread, cheese, yogurt cup, water glass, ant, and bowl of boiled spinach are respectively transformed "after lunch" into a core, crumbs, cheese rind, yogurt dregs, ant back-stroking in a puddle of water next to a tipped glass, and a sadly untouched bowl of boiled spinach. Do not, however, expect these transformations to march forward in predictable lockstep. A horse, boot, farmer, watering can, worm, and tractor are all mislabeled on the left and properly identified on the right, "after correction." A badada, dobado, odiod, and lebod return to their perky, healthful selves—banana, tomato, onion, lemon—when they've recovered "after a cold." Many of the sparely rendered vignettes are comically expressive in reaction to the shenanigans, even the octopus and pig flattened into "a splatch" and "a piece of ham" after the elephant. Leave a copy casually open at the desk for instant circulation, or put the art teacher, language arts teacher, and this title together and wait for creative sparks to fly. Copyright © 2017 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois