Sonderbooks Book Review of Ish

Reviewed February 5, 2005.
Candlewick Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2004. 32 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (E REY).
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2005 (#1, Picture Books)

Peter Reynolds has done it again! I wish that I had his books when I was in early elementary school. I’m sure I would have a completely different attitude toward my own ability (or lack of ability) in artistic matters. Though perhaps it’s not too late to change?

Ramon loved to draw. He was drawing a vase, when his older brother Leon laughed, saying his drawing didn’t look like anything.

Ramon was about to give up drawing altogether, when his little sister came along. She put his crumpled picture on the wall of her room. Ramon said that it didn’t even look like a vase.

Marisol said, “Well, it looks vase-ISH!”

Ramon began looking at his drawings in a new way. “Thinking ish-ly allowed his ideas to flow freely.” He later even writes what he isn’t sure is a poem but is certainly poem-ish.

Part of the beauty of the book is the illustrations, as they portray the concept as well. The pictures are by no stretch of the imagination photo-illustrations of people. However, they certainly convey the idea they are meant to represent, and they are definitely beautiful.

This book will help kids and grown-ups live life a little more ish-ly.

Reviews of other books by Peter H. Reynolds:
The Dot
Guyku
The Water Princess

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

******Ish*

by Peter H. Reynolds