Black and blues and read all over

The Crocodile Blues
by Coleman Polhemus

Candlewick Press

I recently came across a blog post where a Mommy--a picture book author, no less--griped that she hated wordless books because she didn't know how to read them aloud. I imagined her improvising a story, all stammers and false starts, and felt sorry for her.

I don't have that problem, obviously. Can I natter about anything art-related? Why, yes I can! Sometimes I even make sense (not that my kids ever notice).

Books like this one, where sequential pictures make for a clear narrative, make it easier, of course. This nearly wordless book speaks loudly and cheerfully, with the world's simplest palette: white and gray scale for daytime, and deep blue, black and banana yellow at night.

Know what I thought of first? Matisse. Call me crazy, but using just four colors (in printing terms, gray is really lesser tones of black) in huge, flat slabs to convey mood just smacks of my favorite Expressionist and his cut-paper collages.

It's set in the Jazz Age, featuring a sleepy fellow with a cockatoo on his head who buys an egg and sticks it in his fridge, waking in deepest, darkest night to a cracking sound. We get only slivers of light--that's the yellow, see--and the silhouette of a crocodile. What follows is the usual madcap misunderstanding, with the fellow fleeing, cockatoo in tow, to a cramped little flat elsewhere.

Foldout pages go out or up, adding scale and suspense. What'll it unfold to be? Why, a tall building, with a lonely croc peering out from the only lit window. How sad. Not to fear ... several pages later, we'll be back as the man accepts a mysterious invitation. Unfold the pages upward and discover his old building converted into a blues club, the local swells outlined in the lit windows.

This study in contrasts--dark or bright, empty or busy, cramped or expansive--uses only a few monosyllables (we do get a "zoom" or a "swoosh" here and there) but a large visual vocabulary. And since kids read illustrations, they'll piece together a more coherent story than you could spin in an hour of talking. 

See if they can pick out the man from all the other shadows when he's in line for the blues club. I bet they know immediately it's the silhouette in yellow, as if reflecting the light, his face upturned in obvious wonder, though he has no facial features we ever see.

You can weave stories out of whole cloth, or whole pages, with just four colors, no words, bare outlines and plenty of laughter. Try this for starters: "Once upon a time ..."

Rating: *\*\*\*\

Comments

[Briana]

Thanks for the review on this book. We happened to get it from the library and it's his favorite. We've had to renew it already and he loves to read it every night! Funny!! ;)

[Bkbuds]

Smart kid! I loved this one too.