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mat_tobin's review
4.0
It must be a challenge when working with someone else's words, especially when they belong to that of a poet. But in this comical, creative story of a child who finds all sorts of uses for a stick found cast upon the floor, both Layton and Hegley manage to work a little wonder.
Opening at Stockport Station, as Stanley, his stick and his parents are boarding the train for the beach, we are given a wonderful overview of Stanley's vivid imagination. Here, Layton's striking, thick-lined illustrations burst with life supporting Hegley's smatterings of word-play and puns.
With such a strong verse guiding the narrative it must have been hard for the illustrator to not stay tied to the words but Layton conveys so much in his visual narrative. When Stanley's family finally at the beach, there is real consideration into the placement of the reader as well as the use of space and perspective to bring a sense of change in Stanley's inner life. There is lots in the illustrations here that take this beyond it being just a 'fun and humorous' picturebook which celebrates a creative mind. There is a story of choice here, of maturity and reflection too.
Opening at Stockport Station, as Stanley, his stick and his parents are boarding the train for the beach, we are given a wonderful overview of Stanley's vivid imagination. Here, Layton's striking, thick-lined illustrations burst with life supporting Hegley's smatterings of word-play and puns.
With such a strong verse guiding the narrative it must have been hard for the illustrator to not stay tied to the words but Layton conveys so much in his visual narrative. When Stanley's family finally at the beach, there is real consideration into the placement of the reader as well as the use of space and perspective to bring a sense of change in Stanley's inner life. There is lots in the illustrations here that take this beyond it being just a 'fun and humorous' picturebook which celebrates a creative mind. There is a story of choice here, of maturity and reflection too.
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