Doors in the Air

March 15, 2012
A small boy muses on the power of imagination to carry you away from ordinary life. After enumerating usual features of his home--roof, walls, beds, tables, brooms, books and hooks--the narrator reveals his fascination with doors. "Doors open wide / To let me pass through / Like rain down a spout / Or smoke up a flue." Pratt's quirky acrylic paintings (new illustrations for a text first published in 2008) show a sharply angular house and a variety of commonplace objects. They also introduce the imaginary creatures that accompany the narrator on his journey: a small stuffed elephant, a red, white and blue bird, a goldfish and a fanciful, ostrich-like creature. A wordless double-page spread halfway through the tale shows them escaping into the world of imagination. Rhyming, rhythmic quatrains become three-line stanzas: "You are, you see, / The silver key / To open up the lock." The dreamscape includes a jungle with oversize plants, a rounded castle, a passage with keyhole-shaped windows, a page of colorful doors and a flying carpet, which brings the boy home. A magical incantation is repeated: "Oh sesame, sesame / East of me, west of me / Sesame, sesame, snap!" Surreal in its effect, this celebration of the creative mind encourages young readers and listeners to open doors of their own. (Picture book. 4-8)

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May 1, 2012

PreS-Gr 2-Though it begins as a detailed description of an ordinary house, "There's an attic for trunks... /There are bedrooms and halls/Ceilings and floors...," this story-in-verse quickly transforms into a paean to the metaphorical doors of one's imagination. The narrator, an unnamed boy, leaves his mundane bedroom (through a door, of course) and journeys into a series of imaginary landscapes, praising the doors' amazing ability to transport him to surprising places all the while. A bit of nonsense verse is thrown in for good measure: "Oh sesame, sesame/Wrinkles and recipes/Tickedy, tackedy, tock!" Painted in a cartoon, stylized manner, Pratt's bright acrylic spreads delight with vivid greens, reds, and blues. The content of the illustrations, however, does not quite match the colors in exuberance. Unlike, say, the wild imaginings of Dr. Seuss, the depiction of the fantasyland here is spare and somewhat understated. A few flying fish, a tiny elephant, and an odd-looking flamingo-esque bird are some of the more whimsical details. Mildly charming but not essential.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY

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