I
encountered Oliver Jeffers’ books recently when I was in Goa a fortnight ago
for a Library educators’ course. It was love at first sight – the moment I
started reading his books, I knew that this was what I had always wanted
picture books to be – a meaningful coming together of words and images to
create a tale that floods your senses,
and stimulates your grey cells – all at once.
Jeffers has produced several pictures books, both singly
and in collaboration. One that I have particularly liked, is The
Heart and the Bottle. It’s
about a little girl who loved exploring and discovering and learning new
things, until she experiences a terrible loss. Not prepared to deal with it, she
locks away her heart in a bottle. What happens next? Does she ever take it out
again? As you read on to find out, you learn about the devastating effects of
grief, about recovery, healing and happiness. That’s the Jeffers magic for you.
Another of his books that moved me is a book about books,
about the magic of stories. Jeffers wrote A Child of Books in collaboration with Sam Winston. The narration begins with
a little girl (I am a child of books, I come
from a world of stories, And upon my imagination, I float) who sets sail on
a sea of words …
And arrives at the house of a little boy and invites him
to join her on her journey into the power of imagination. It’s a highly
intertextual book and refers to almost forty famous works of literature. The
reader thus simultaneously goes on her own journey, as she spots the references
and revisits those stories.
A Child of
Books is a homage to all the amazing children’s classics that have been a
part of the authors’ growing up years (and mine!). Since Jeffers and Winston
both feel that reading is a visceral and sensual experience, the text from the
classics form a part of this book. For instance, when the girl sets sail, the
sea is made up of words taken from famous sea-faring stories.
Winston with his exceptionally fine typographic art and
Jeffers with his hauntingly lyrical illustrations have created a modern
children’s classic in this book.
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