Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Starred Review "I am a child of books," a little girl declares. "I come from a world of stories." And so begins this enchanting tale of a little girl sailing away on a sea made, literally, of words are many other things in her bookcentric world. Words are fashioned into the shapes of mountains, a monster, a dark cave, and more as the girl is joined by a boy on an adventure that dramatically demonstrates the freedom of imagination. Jeffers and Winston's first collaboration is a celebration of the child's world, illustrated in sumptuous double-page spreads featuring explosions of images borrowed from unforgettable sources: there's Little Red Riding Hood, there's the Cheshire Cat, there's Mr. Toad in his shiny motorcar, and there are the children themselves, standing upon a spinning globe. At first glance, this beautiful book looks simple, but that is deceptive. Every one of its elements e haunting prose poem executed in hand-lettered words; the pictures done in watercolor, pencil, and digital collage; and the objects built from words borrowed from classic stories l work together toward a richly harmonious whole. An irresistible invitation to read.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Jeffers is pushing himself artistically by pairing with fine-artist Winston, and his many fans ought to take notice.

School Library Journal Starred Review (Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Gr 1 Up-A gorgeous, innovative musing on the power of storytelling. A nameless young girl who calls herself a child of books narrates in lyrical, spellbinding verse. Some, she says, have forgotten the importance of stories, but she finds a boy and introduces him to her world, a land created through a marriage of Jeffers's evocative art and Winston's masterly use of typography. In one scene, the children climb "mountains of make-believe" whose peaks and valleys are constructed from text from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan ; in another, the pair play hide-and-seek in a forest of trees whose branches are made up of text from various fairy tales. As the two travel farther into the land of imagination, the art slowly takes on a vibrant, joyful tone. Spots of color are added here and there until, finally, loose, sketchy black-and-white line drawings of the children against spare backgrounds are replaced with rich, full-color spreads. Even the choice of which books to excerpt is inspired, and those who take a closer look at the pictures will be rewarded (words and sentences from tales of terror such as Frankenstein, Dracula , and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow comprise a furry, horned monster who menaces a castle; the children escape by climbing down the castle on a rope made up of prose from "Rapunzel"). A full listing of the excerpted works is included on the endpapers; the majority of works are British classics from the Western canon. VERDICT Use this wholly original celebration of the story as a jumping-off point for conversations about art and writing. A masterpiece. Mahnaz Dar , School Library Journal

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Jeffers (The Day the Crayons Quit) writes the text for this hymn to the power of imagination, and he and typographic artist Winston collaborate on the spreads, in which Jeffers-s witty pen-and-ink drawings meet Winston-s manipulated blocks of type, composed of passages from children-s classics. -I am a child of books,- a straight-haired girl says; she-s sitting on a raft, dangling her feet in a river of Winston-s tiny letters. -I come from a world of stories/ and upon my imagination/ I float.- A page turn reveals the raft sailing across an ocean of Winston-s word waves. Boldface titles buried within the words reveal their sources-The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle, Treasure Island, and others. Together with a boy in striped shorts, the girl journeys to a cave, forest, and outer space, each scene enhanced with Winston-s altered text, as when the passages from Frankenstein create the dense fur of a monster marauding a castle. Though more an artist-s creation than a children-s story, the energy of the images bursts from the pages, -for imagination is free,- Jeffers concludes. All ages. Agent: Paul Moreton, Bell Lomax Moreton Agency. (Sept.)