A review by antlersantlers
Two Brothers, Four Hands by Jan Greenberg, Sandra Jordan

2.0

The illustration style is incredible and the artist is immensely talented but I think the potential is absolutely squandered. I, an adult, could barely follow the narrative; which is, at many points, hindered by the illustrations. Hooper uses a beautiful textural colored undertone for most of the illustrations, but it causes everything to blend together!

Here is an example:



In the top left, I look at the tree -- the only different color -- and eventually I find the brothers. In the bottom right I guess I look at the wheelbarrow? But everything else is very hard to parse and Alberto is 100% part of the scenery. In the right image, Diego blends in with the studio full of stuff. There's always a lot happening, but with nothing visually indicating what is important and what isn't.

The text is fine but also hard to follow!