Reviews: (by author)

(3 Reviews)

Raschka, Chris. FIVE for a Little One. New York: Atheneum, 2006. ISBN 0-689-84599-4. $16.95.

Chris Raschka is the Caldecott-winning author of Norton Juster’s The Hello, Goodbye Window (Juster wrote The Phantom Tollbooth). Raschka’s illustrious career began several years ago with picturebooks about, e.g. John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, which he also wrote. The hilarious and controversial Arlene Sardine is one of my favorite picturebooks. Raschka’s illustrated many books for other authors, always in a distinctive, broad-brush art.

This lovely book is an ode to the five senses, written in brief concrete images a toddler can grasp, imagine, and mull over. The main character, a soft-looking bunny, floats through Raschaka’s words like little kids float through their day. I especially like the Taste page with the berry pie.

A. Allison, June 2007

Raschka, Chris. Talk to Me About the Alphabet. New York: Henry Holt, 2003. $16.95. ISBN 0-8050-6782-5.

Chris Raschka is an exuberantly imaginative author/illustrator. Here he turns his attention to the ABCs. Just when you thought there could be no more original alphabet books, he comes up with alphabet with attitude. The attitude belongs to the funny and dynamically-drawn brown-suited velocipede-riding gent who directly addresses the reader. He also plays throughout the book with a very flexible cat. I happen to know that Chris Raschka lives in NYC, and I smile to associate the character's attitude with the stereotype of New Yorkers: in your face--but with humor both in illustration (wonderful use of both color and line) and text.

Highly recommended

A.A. May '03

Raschka, Chris. John Coltrane's Giant Steps. New York: Atheneum, 2002. $17. ISBN 0-689-84598-7.

From its see-through, multi-dimensional cover to its use of shape and color to represent the musical contributions and interactions of the parts of the jazz band, this is an extraordinary book that pushes the windows of perception. Art and language attempt to mimic sound--brush paint lines of a kitten scuttle across the pages: a visual alter ego to the "sheets of sound" of music, as John Coltrane called them. Raschka's two-page spread on 30-31 is, literally, incomparable.

The book is also a meta-fiction-a comment on its own literary qualities. For example, one page refers to another page and characters within the story are addressed directly. It works-the book's a pleasure to read aloud, as well as an artistic feat.

A.A. Sp '03

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