What an odd little find in the picture books -- a flight of fancy that reminds me best of alice in wonderland and a little of Shaun Tan. ( )

Lewis, J. Patrick

This is the story of an artist trying to tap into his imagination to come up with works of art. His imagination has "taken a holiday." He ends up at The Last Resort - like a hotel- where he meets a variety of literary figures who are on different quests while staying there. All the guests eventually find what they are looking for and leave. At the end of the book, the narrator realizes, "in searching for themselves, the patrons of The Last Resort had shown me the road to self-discovery!" I found it to be a playful book and the illustrations are beautiful. The book causes the reader to think about what he/she is reading which is a good characteristic for gifted students. They would have to understand the allusions in the story though, and most of them would not. They could read the author's notes at the end of the book and do some exploring on their own to find out about the characters and people they were unfamiliar with. ( )

Fun read, especially if you are a lit geek. Reminded me of Chris van Allsburgh in terms of storytelling, not illustration, style. ( )

I can't really say if a child would like this or not, But myself, I love everything about it: the characters, the gorgeus drawings, the verse, the story... The text has this vauge dreamlike feeing that is contrasted by the extremely detailed ad "realistic" yet beutiful illustrations. The basic premise of the book - an isolated hotel visited by those in search for something - is for some reason incredibly appealing to me, and the playful meta-fictional handling of the characters is the cherry on top of the cake. I heartily recommend this! ( )