Shadow [Hardcover]

Suzy Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2010 | Age Range: 1 - 8 years

A dark attic. A light bulb. An imaginative little girl.

Internationally acclaimed artist Suzy Lee uses these simple elements to create a visual tour de force that perfectly captures the joy of creative play and celebrates the power of imagination. Stunning in their simplicity, Lee's illustrations, in just two shades of color, present an adventure that begins and ends with the click of a light bulb.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In a nearly wordless, nearly monochrome fantasy, a straight-haired girl--perhaps the same exuberant heroine of Lee's Wave--finds a secret world in the shadows cast by the light bulb in a storage room. The pages are meant to flip from bottom to top. With the top page held at an angle (say, while lap reading) the book becomes the room itself: on the top page, delicately drawn household objects cluster (a hose hangs over a ladder, the sole separates from a boot), while the bottom page becomes the floor on which shadows are projected. The girl starts out tentatively, making a bird shadow with her hands. As her imagination flourishes, the hose becomes a snake, the ladder a glade of trees, and a wolflike creature manifests; the forest teems with animal shadows, the wolf threatens, and the line between the "real" and imagined realms is blurred. Only the cry "Dinner's ready!" stops the action. Or does it? Once again, Lee focuses on a single idea, develops it with rich imaginative power, and executes it with grace and finesse. All ages. (Oct.) (c)
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From School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1–The world of shadow is mysterious and magical, where splayed hands become birds and canister vacuums transform into elephants. Lee's nearly wordless picture book pulls children into this place as they watch a girl play in a cluttered storage room. As her imaginary world develops, the real one fades, until the two merge and a dangerous fox, created by the shadow of the girl holding a broken boot, breaks through the gutter and begins a thrilling chase. The book is read horizontally, with images from the top reflected as upside-down shadows below. It is meticulously designed and executed, effectively using the gutter and endpapers as integral parts of the story. Lee uses charcoal, pencil, watercolor, lacquer spray paint, and digital manipulation to create two interlinked and fascinating worlds. She employs yellow to denote elements created in the girl's imagination: a few touches at the beginning, then more as magic takes over. As the action moves from the real to the imaginary, readers rotate the book to see the shadow world, then back around, creating a thoroughly interactive and engaging read. Children will pore over the book to see how each of the everyday objects, such as the hose and the wheels on the bicycle, transforms into a snake, sun, and moon in the shadows below.–Suzanne Myers Harold, Multnomah County Library System, Portland, ORα(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 1 - 8 years
  
• Hardcover: 44 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; First Edition edition (September 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811872807
• ISBN-13: 978-0811872805
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.5 x 12 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #273,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Illustrations! September 15, 2010

By Bessie C

Format:Hardcover

If you loved "Where the wild things are", you will love Suzy Lee's "Shadow". The illustrations are full of energy, it captured the imagination of child's play. It is a must read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice, really nice August 20, 2011

By Deborah Sandford

Format:Hardcover

This delightful, creative storybook is basically wordless. The endpapers are black; and with a simple "click" a young girl pulls the light on in a garage. On the left side of the page are the contents of the garage, and on the right, their shadows. As the story progresses, the girl creates shadow puppets with her hands, and other items. The`shadow page' begins to reflect her imaginary characters, and are shaded in yellow. As her imaginary scene becomes more involved, the shadow page becomes more yellow, and the garage items, opposite, disappear, until there is a barrage of black imaginary characters, where a story within a story unfolds until someone hollers, "DINNER'S READY!" Girl and reader are brought back to reality, where the items in the garage are tumbled around. She clicks off the light, the pages go black, and slowly, yellow shading and the characters she imagined reappear....

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So Cute! December 30, 2010

By E. Worth

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book and Suzy Lee's other book, Wave, for my 4 year-old niece. It was a hit. She kept flipping through both books over and over. She would walk away, and then come back to slip through them again. Which is exactly how I felt when I flipped through them. Even though it is a picture book, it really sparks the imagination. This will be one of my new favorite go-to gifts for children. And I really think it would be appropriate for any age. One that can be passed down for generations.