Pretend (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Pretend Hope Morrison Plecas, Jennifer. Pretend; written and illus. by Jennifer Plecas. Philomel, 2011. [32p]. ISBN 978-0-399-23430-9 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 4–7 yrs. “‘Pretend,’ Jimmy said to Dad, ‘that this couch is a big boat, and that we’re floating in the ocean.’” It takes Dad a while to warm up to the ins and outs of pretend play (“Say, ‘Oh no, what are we going to do?,’” Jimmy instructs his dad), but he is soon imagining with the best of them, occasionally offering details that Jimmy then gloms onto (when Dad proclaims that he stepped on a crab, Jimmy immediately steps on one, too). Their adventure takes them on a fishing trip, up a steep island mountain, and finally to camp, where they build a fort and rest. While the story of the pair imagining an adventure together is sweet and the details of that adventure are well pitched to the audience, it is the line-and-watercolor illustrations that really carry the concept. Plecas effectively moves the compositions through the stages of transformation, so that in the opening spread, Dad is in fact on a couch, in the next the couch is floating in rocky waters, and in the next the couch is gone altogether and the father and son are side by side in a rickety rowboat. The bulk of the tale is portrayed in the imagined setting, but Plecas occasionally brings the story back to the house, offering the audience glimpses of what Jimmy and Dad’s afternoon might really look like (the mountain climbing begins at the bottom of the stairs, the fort is shown as a few chairs and a blanket in one picture and branches and leaves in the next). The slender line and childlike informality of the figure drawing enhance the homey appeal. Saturday afternoon fort-builders will readily warm to this father-son story. Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois