ianreadstokids reviewed The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen
"In the future, new things will grow."
5 stars
Klassen's Iliad. Feels like a novel despite the trademark minimalism, with all the twists and turns you might expect of a story with full chapter markers. Even though it's quite a journey, it still isn't all that long of a read, a real boon when you're trying to hit the mark on bedtime and have already suffered half an hour of foot-dragging. Has some genuinely funny moments, and some beautiful ones, and some surreal ones.
I'm actually enjoying this one more on subsequent read-throughs, a real feat for picture books. The Chekov's gun. The way Turtle's own behavior is the source of all his discontent. The unanswered questions about what has occurred prior to the story to situate these three creatures in some sort of mildly apocalyptic purgatory. When they imagine into the future, a forest grows on this spot, which only highlights the desolation of their current …
Klassen's Iliad. Feels like a novel despite the trademark minimalism, with all the twists and turns you might expect of a story with full chapter markers. Even though it's quite a journey, it still isn't all that long of a read, a real boon when you're trying to hit the mark on bedtime and have already suffered half an hour of foot-dragging. Has some genuinely funny moments, and some beautiful ones, and some surreal ones.
I'm actually enjoying this one more on subsequent read-throughs, a real feat for picture books. The Chekov's gun. The way Turtle's own behavior is the source of all his discontent. The unanswered questions about what has occurred prior to the story to situate these three creatures in some sort of mildly apocalyptic purgatory. When they imagine into the future, a forest grows on this spot, which only highlights the desolation of their current landscape--what happened that there is no forest here now???
KID (AGE 3-6) VERDICT: He only reaches for it once every few months, but he's been happy to keep coming back to it. I think he enjoys the frisson of danger and we talk regularly about those parts. He also gets some of the sly humor around Turtle's ego, which is fun and not the kind of thing he always catches.