Customer Reviews

Luke's Way of Looking

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an utterly charming book - it reminds me of The Orange Splot. The illustrations are clever and vibrant and the story will resonate with anyone who views the world from outside the mainstream. This book deserves to be a classic and I am going to buy more copies to give as gifts.

One of our students' (www.kidsnclay.com) parents shared this book with me and I was delighted with its message. It is exactly the same philosophy that we practice here at Kids 'N' Clay and were pleased to see it articulated in such a fun an charming way!

The message is powerful ... about the empowerment and positive emotional development that comes through uninhibited creativity and acknowledgement of the uniqueness of each individual!

Well, for starters the selling price indicates it is valued to adults who admire the artists work. If you like surreal modern art, you will like this book. However, I thought it was a litte bit scarry for our young son. The art teacher is a mean, scary, almost spooky, old man who is harsh to the boy in the story. The boy takes a trip to the museum on his own (is actually lost) and misses some of school. He is depicted as a nonconformist who does not fit into his school and as a boy the teacher doesn't understand. At the end of the story this hasn't changed. He is just more comfortable with it as he is excited about having found art and an environment that appeal to him and are similar to the way he sees things and creates art. The missing school, the extra mean teacher, the aspect of still not fitting in or finding a way to fit in while still being one's self, the fact that he is not accepted by the school are all aspects of the story that I don't care for. Lastly, the art is surreal and very modern, which is not my taste. I didn't actually read the story to my son for the above mentioned reasons but we did explore it a number of times just to stir his immagination. I just didn't tell him that some of the odd scenes were supposed to be real life scenes that were odd rather than another art picture.

The colors are wonderful and the story is a clever way to incorporate such art into a children's story. If this is the kind of art you like then this may well be a wonderufl book for you. By looking at the going price I can see that I am in a minority!