I have concluded that Seymour Chwast and I are not going to be book friends. I have now read several of their books and none of them have been, to be blunt, fun. The right reader/listener will have a fine time, but something tells me many of their books are for adults and not for children. Yet, they are aimed at kids. The artwork is the focus for me, and the text a secondary. They are not messing with the text. The illustrations are colorful, but missing depth and details. This combination does not allow me to be comfortable viewing them. And this might be true with other viewers. So, as always, know your reader/listener.
Out of four full reads and a skimmed book (Find Your A: An Alphabet Letter Search), Chwast has come off as awkward each time. Life Lessons probably was the easier one to like and understand, but their illustrations are off. And therefore, any possible liking is lost. And Find a Friend was just wrong. Now there are many reasons why these feelings come up (I am hungry, tired, distracted, headachy, etc.), but I also know that regardless of if I like these books, someone else will. While some titles are out, I have read all as online reader copies.
Life Lessons is currently out. This book illustrates famous sayings/proverbs that most of us know. There are one or two worded differently (looking a gift horse in the mouth of European fame has the wording not counting its teeth in Mexico). An afterwards covers the meanings of the phrases.
As I said, Find a Friend was just wrong for me. Due in July 2023, this picture book is telling us to give a gift to a new friend, and then how one should react/do (have a fish lunch with a walrus for one). Overall, there is nothing to this book. It is light without any “meat” to the story.
And then there is Where’s My Cat (currently available). This is a (as the publisher description says) a visual puzzle book. You see things (a ball and toaster) and it is not “that” but a bulldog. The whole time, however, we are trying to find the narrator’s cat, and a pair of scissors helps us with that.
