Is a Book a Box for Words?

August 1, 2024
An intriguing title sparks a host of connections and associations. Boxes are everywhere: on doorsteps, thanks to online shopping; in our cupboards and fridges, as foodstuffs. Boxes of all sizes hold clothes and toys. They house people in glass towers and animals in crates or sometimes shoe boxes. Money, fishing tackle, and even planes, bees, and brains can be said to be kept in boxes. Stringed instruments can be boxes that hold music; games of hopscotch and foursquare are played within chalk drawings made up of boxes. Ziefert's book evokes Mary Ann Hoberman and Betty Fraser's classicA House Is a House for Me. Halfway through, the text switches from assertions to interrogatives (the preferred sentence form for many Ziefert books). But this one never answers the title query. It never hints that a book can be so much more than words. Still, the author offers plenty of food for thought; young dreamers will have plenty to mull. Though sometimes strained, the rhymes mostly work, but random jumps in rhythm and meter will keep readers on their toes. The inventive book art combines photo elements with neon color and a lively black linework that changes in thickness for pleasing variety. A bright pink bear with an elongated snout and tiny toes appears in several illustrations; the few human figures are amusingly cartoonish and vary in skin tone. Eye-catching inspiration to encourage out-of-the-box thinking.(Picture book. 5-8)

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