Ooo, I feel badly for reviewing this book this way, but... I really wasn't that impressed with High in the Clouds. I thought it was full of oversimplifications, that the characters weren't well developed, and things happened in the book because it was convenient for them to happen. From the start, I was put off - for example, Wirral's mother is killed when the bulldozers destroy the Woodland. However, amidst the mayhem and carnage, Wirral is able to get his father's old raft, put his mother on it, and then decorate it with piles of flowers? And even as this is going on, the forest is still being destroyed, with branches falling around him and others begging him to leave? Not only is the story muddled, but the artwork doesn't represent this at all.

I felt that the personalities of the characters were very much stereotyped. While the narrative has some fun asides, they often seemed to leave children out of the loop. It seems that no one settled on a particular writing style for the entire story. I really wish that more detail and revision had been put into this story - lots of the characters are very interesting, but we learn so little about them. For example, what are some of the 101 reasons that Alfredo the flea hates Gretsch? Why does Froggo have a wooden leg? And why on earth would the animals leave their children with Gretsch as a babysitter?

I really did want to enjoy this book, but I felt that it was incomplete. ( )