Gorgeous screen prints. Beautiful! Marvelous! Clever juxtapositions of words and pictures. But not really a book for little children. More like a coffee table book to be enjoyed by folks who like art. ( )

French illustrator Blexbolex uses colorful screen prints paired with one-word-per-page text to bring readers through the seasons of the year. Some pairings are straightforward – a picture of a butterfly with the word BUTTERFLY – while others require a little examination and consideration, like the illustration of a boy walking in the autumn woods with the word DELIGHT. Although not a story in the traditional sense, Seasons does tell its own sort of tale as it winds its way through a familiar (though occasionally disjointed) ordering of images largely focused on the natural world: wind, rain, harvest, fireflies. Adults may also notice more subtle connections (“TRAFFIC JAM” followed by “CATERPILLAR CRAWL,” for instance) and allusions to well-known stories and artworks. This is a book to enjoy aesthetically and talk through with your child, most likely a little bit at a time.

TEACHER TIP: Use this book to engage students at all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Sample questions include:
-List pictures and words that showed winter. (remembering)
-Why do you think the author chose to pair this word with this picture? (understanding)
-Choose a page and tell about an experience you’ve had with the idea/activity shown. (applying)
-Construct a seasons timeline using images/words from the book. (analysis)
-What pages would you move or remove and why? (evaluating)
-Create a story to tell what is happening on this page. (creating)
-Create your own seasons book with seasonal images and words from your own experience. (creating and applying) ( )

Een prachtig vormgegeven prentenboek. Een leuke manier om de seizoenen te koppelen aan de ervaringen van een lerend kind. Wel zijn enkele van de worden, zoals kwetsuur en somberheid, wellicht buiten de bevattingswereld van het jonge kind.

This concept book is a true triumph of design. The use of form is incredibly creative but also flawlessly intuitive. The image pairings are often quite clever and give the book a loose narrative, following the cyclical progression of the seasons. The book is laced with comedy, whimsy, and tragedy. This range gives the book staying power while maintaining lightheartedness. The simplicity of the text makes the book incredibly accessible to young readers, but the innovative usage of patterns, opacity, perspective, and negative space make it just as engaging for those more mature. I would strongly recommend this book and believe it would be a wonderful addition to any collection. ( )

Design-y goodness. Z didn't dig it quite as much as People. On the other hand, some of the juxtapositions are perfect and fun to parse out: flowering/allergy, bocce/itchy. ( )