The Red Book

Rating:
Summary: Destined to become a classic!
Review: I love this little book. Personally, I think it's one of the best picture books to come along in ages! A girl finds a red book in a snowdrift. Inside are pictures of a boy on a tropical island. The boy is also reading a red book. Curious. His red picture book shows a girl in the city who is reading a book about a boy on an island... hey, woah! Lehman's illustrations beautifully convey the unique twist of this magical story/brain teaser for the very young (and not so very young.) The story is an inspiring message about the power of books transcending time and space to bring people together. For me, the best part about The Red Book is that it's a book within a book. The reader is not simply an observer, but a participant of sorts (since they're reading The Red Book too!) I predict The Red Book becomes a classic.

Rating:
Summary: The Red Book
Review: What can books do exactly? Do they truly have the power to connect people? The Red Book does seem to have that power. It says The Red Book on its spine, and it is a red book so it keeps to the truth though it becomes fantastic as its story unfolds. It shows a little girl running on its cover as though about to turn the corner of the cover's edge. The viewer is drawn to follow her to the in side of the book, as though entering a space. A double page cityscape unfolds. We the see our little girl as she walks along the city's streets and finds a red book. Opening it she discovers a map showing a boy on an island finding a red book. They regard each other through the picture-window of the book. She seeks out a balloon vendor, buys a bundle of balloons that carry her away to the boy's island but drops her red book. A boy on a city street finds it and there we may assume the story begins again. Barbara Lehman's soft flannel-textured flat gouache illustrations allow us to be comfortably drawn into the pages on the imaginative journey offered by The Red Book.