Renowned illustrator Daniel Kirk has joined his "blocks" -- in this case, bright colors, bold shapes, and retro style -- with Robert Louis Stevenson's classic poem to construct a nostalgic yet exuberant celebration of fun and imagination. It is a joyous look at playtime that will encourage toddlers to build dreams all their own!

Block City

ANNOTATION

A child creates a world of his own which has mountains and sea, a city and ships, all from toy blocks.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

What are you able to build with your blocks?

Renowned illustrator Daniel Kirk has joined his "blocks" -- in this case, bright colors, bold shapes, and retro style -- with Robert Louis Stevenson's classic poem to construct a nostalgic yet exuberant celebration of fun and imagination. It is a joyous look at playtime that will encourage toddlers to build dreams all their own!

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Wolff, creator of such visually arresting books as A Year of Beasts, illustrates a favorite poem from A Child's Garden of Verses. In her now familiar combination of strong black, block-printed line juxtaposed with vibrant watercolor, she explores the literal and emotional content of Stevenson's work. The simple jacket of this well-designed volume shows a wagon full of bright blocks, with the softly evoked watercolor outline of the block city in the background. This is closely followed by pictures of other elements named in the poem: an overstuffed sofa becomes mountains, and the carpet becomes the sea. The pages illustrating the boy's imagined city are carefully detailed, incorporating subtle references into the timeless landscapes of each spread. Ages 3-7. (September)

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

Stevenson's poem opens up the world of possibilities for a child with imagination and a large set of blocks. As the rain pours down outside, Kirk invites us to explore with a young boy the wondrous construction that takes him on the adventure the poet describes. The nostalgia of the author's memory of "my town by the sea" can be felt by the adult reader, but the sense of power in the building and even the destruction is clear to all. Using Prismacolor pencils and gouache paints, Kirk slickly fills his spreads with inventive but believable block constructions and peoples them with wooden dolls. The lucky young boy with the buckets of blocks gives scale to and personalizes the creations. But it is the care with which the blocks are rendered, and the town, city, palace, etc. are designed that draw us into his artistic processes. The visual story ends with the end of the rain and friends calling to come out to play, as the words reminisce about the past. 2005, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Ages 3 to 6.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2 Wolff's colorful paintings, which resemble block prints, cleverly combine with and enrich Stevenson's poem. Large two-page spreads show a young boy at home reading on a rainy day. As he starts to build with his blocks on the floor he creates an elaborate landscape that comes alive. The hard edges of the cut block contrast with muted colors that fade off into the distance to echo the corresponding relationship in the poem whereby the solid building blocks combine with the child's imagination to create a world of palaces and harbors, sailing ships and kings. Perhaps with this lovely introduction, new readers will be drawn to Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, from which this poem is taken. Judith Gloyer, Milwaukee Public Library

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1-This colorfully illustrated version of Stevenson's poem is as relevant today as when it was written for A Child's Garden of Verses in 1883. On a rainy day, a small boy constructs a city with building blocks. His imagination soars and his creation soon includes a harbor, mill, palace, and kirk (the illustrator helpfully defines the word "kirk" on the verso of the title page). The couch becomes a mountain range and the carpet an ocean, while a collection of toy people populate his vast domain. Done in colored pencils and gouache in rich, deep colors, the large, clear pictures have a retro feel. The boy's real and imagined towns are both blanketed by dark rain clouds that soon give way to sun and bright blue skies. Demolition appears to be as satisfying as the building process for this youngster: "Now I have done with it,/down let it go!/All in a moment/the town is laid low." Having had enough quiet entertainment for one day, he runs out into the sunshine to join friends, but his imaginary world remains clear in his mind. This enduring poem will charm modern children.-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Echoing Ashley Wolff's 1988 approach to Stevenson's poetic tribute to the power of imagination, Kirk begins with neatly drawn scenes of a child in a playroom, assembling large wooden blocks into, "A kirk and a mill and a palace beside, / And a harbor as well where my vessels may ride." All of these acquire grand architectural details and toy-like inhabitants as the pages turn, until at last the narrator declares, "Now I have done with it, down let it go!" In a final twist, the young city-builder is shown running outside, into a well-kept residential neighborhood in which all the houses except his have been transformed into piles of blocks. Not much to choose between the two interpretations, but it's a poem that every child should have an opportunity to know. (Picture book/poetry. 5-7)