Oliver Jeffers

Celebrated author/artist Oliver Jeffers, inspired by the birth of his son, presents a picture-book love letter to our planet in this beautiful new book. "Here we are," the narrator informs us, pointing to our blue globe, as it hangs in space. From the land to the sea, from people to animals, all the wonderful, marvelous kinds of creature and thing that go to make up our planet are detailed. So too are various pieces of advice about living in this world of ours, from cherishing the time we show more have (there isn't much of it) to being kind to the other residents. In the end, on Earth, you are never alone...

Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth is Jeffers' newest book, and I think that it is (along with A Child of Books) one of my absolute favorites. The narrative is simple, but immensely moving, highlighting as it does both the diversity and the unity of life on Earth. The artwork is simply breathtaking! Jeffers utilizes a gorgeous color palette here, whether it be the purples of space (and the mountains) or the rainbow hues of Earth's peoples, in their many different garbs. I think my favorite pages were those on which so many different people and animals were depicted. I loved some of the humorous details here - the Dodo Bird, on the animal page, is thinking "I'm not supposed to be here" - but most of all I loved the sense of heart, the sense that this truly is a meditation on all that is important, in our earth-bound lives. Recommended to Jeffers' fans, and to anyone looking for children's picture-books about living in and belonging to the world. show less

Celebrated picture-book creator Oliver Jeffers returns to the form in this newest title, which offers a celebration of the father-daughter bond, and a hopeful vision of what that bond might produce, in the years to come. Together, the pair build a home for themselves, and together, they contend with any number of potential situations, from conflict with neighbors to travels to other locales...

Pairing a simple text in rhyme with gorgeously colorful artwork, What We'll Build: Plans for Our show more Together Future is clearly a follow-up to Jeffers' earlier Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, published in 2017 as a love letter to the planet, and to his newborn son. Here we see that the inspiration is his daughter, Mari, and that the focus is on the future, rather than on the world as it is. Having absolutely loved that earlier book, I had high hopes for this one, and for the most part, I was not disappointed. While the rhyming text sometimes felt just a tad awkward (something I did not notice in the earlier book), I appreciated its message of hope and determination, when facing the world to come. The artwork, on the other hand, left absolutely nothing to be desire, and was simply beautiful. The vivid color palette, the stylized forms, the overall composition - it all worked splendidly. My favorite scenes were undoubtedly the ones featuring the witchy neighbor - witchy picture-books being a pet project of mine - and the ones with the beautiful red fox (another pet project). Recommended to Oliver Jeffers fans, and to picture-book readers looking for hopeful stories about the future, and all it holds. show less

Celebrated (and prolific!) author/artist Oliver Jeffers explores the nature of grief in this poignant picture-book, following the story of a young girl who is filled with wonder at the world, and who shares that wonder with a beloved elder. When that elder - a father, perhaps a grandfather? - disappears from her life, the girl shuts her heart in a bottle, in order to protect it from the griefs of life. But without her heart, she finds that she has become blind to the beauty and wonder she show more once saw all around her. It takes another little wonder-filled girl, whom she encounters when she herself is a little older, to help her begin to free her heart from its self-imposed exile...

A simple but emotionally resonant text, one which captures the grieving process perfectly, is paired with beautiful artwork in The Heart and the Bottle, creating an understated but powerful picture-book experience. I particularly appreciated the message, implicit in the story, that in order to experience joy and wonder, we must also endure pain and sorrow, something the girl eventually learns through her own experiences. Jeffers has a perceptive eye for the human condition here, and I found the idea, also highlighted in the story, that we can get so out of the habit of opening our hearts, that we forget how to do so, quite powerful. The illustrations are lovely, whether they communicate the desolation the girl feels, when confronting loss (as represented by an empty chair), or the joy she experiences, when the world opens up to her again (as depicted by the rainbow-colored smorgasbord of images that flow from her head, toward the conclusion of the tale). Recommended to Jeffers fans, and to anyone looking for children's stories which explore loss and grief. show less

Henry loved books. Specifically, he loved to eat them. The more he ate the tasty tomes, the smarter he got. Until the day, that is, that the knowledge he was ingesting began to become a little mixed, and he began to feel a little ill as a result of his unusual diet. Following the advice of parents, doctors and librarians, he stopped scarfing down books, but subsequently found life a bit dull and flat. What could he do...?

READ!!! (of course!) Although I saw the ending of The Incredible Book show more Eating Boy coming from a ways off, and fully expected to find in its pages a paean to the beauty and joy of reading, I still found the process of getting to the conclusion quite enjoyable. The story here is humorous and engaging, offering an oblique exploration of how we consume books and other media amidst all the hilarity. There's something to be said for taking our time when we read, rather than rushing to read everything we can, without pausing to truly mull it over. I appreciated that Jeffers managed to work that message into his book, without resorting to any overt didactic display. The illustrations were every bit as appealing as the story, making use of textual collage elements in ways that reminded me of the artist's work for his subsequent A Child of Books. Recommended to fellow Jeffers fans, and to anyone looking for children's stories that address how we approach books and knowledge. show less