Sergio Ruzzier

A little creature grows frustrated with his book in this charming tale from expatriate Italian artist Sergio Ruzzier, throwing it away because it has no pictures. Repenting almost immediately, he reclaims it, realizing that he does indeed know some of the words, and that those words can do extraordinary things. They can evoke all kinds of emotions, take him on journeys far and near, and remain with him... always.

Through pure serendipity, I recently read Ruzzier's argument against the idea of show more reading levels - see: Let Kids Read by Sergio Ruzzier - in which the artist speaks of his great love of picture-books, both as a young boy, and as he grew older. How appropriate that here, in "This Is Not a Picture Book!", we have an exploration of a child's frustration with books that don't have illustrations. Although the text here is minimal, it conveys the magic of words - their power and lasting impact. The artwork, done in pen, ink and watercolor, is charming. Recommended to anyone who enjoys more metafictional picture-books, or narratives which celebrate the power of reading. show less

Fish is tired of life underwater where everything is cold and dark, so Fish swims up to the surface where a new friend is found – Sun! Sun is warm and lively and bright, but can the two stay friends forever?

This is a sweet book with some elements of humor, although not as funny as some other early reader titles by Ruzzier, such as the Fox + Chick series. However, this book does have simpler text than those so it is clearly designed for readers who are much newer to reading on their own and show more need very limited text per page.

The illustrations are quite typical of Ruzzier’s style and the different colors of the sky throughout the day from sunrise to sunset are very beautiful.

Before the story begins, there's a quick tutorial on how to read comics with explanations of panels vs. gutters, different dialogue types, etc. I love how it tells readers to look at visual cues, particularly about emotional states, and extrapolate information from there.

However, although this book is part of the I Can Read! Comics line, it really is not in a graphic novel style at all. Technically there are panels in that every illustration has a border, but each page spread is one image. And yes, there are dialogue bubbles, but that’s not atypical of picture books/early readers that aren’t designed to look like comics. show less

With very few words, this is the story of a boy and his dog.

In many ways, this is a simple book. The text is held to a bare minimum, staying on the simple one or two word commands a boy gives to his dog. The dog reacts. At first, it's simple, but as the story progresses, everything becomes more complex.

The illustrations are lovingly done and carry the tale more than the words themselves. The relationship and imagination comes to light in the watercolor depictions and will have young show more listeners dreaming of all of the things they could do with their 'best friends'.

When I picked this up for the first time, I immediately had the urge to read it to our dog. Out of curiosity, I left the book on the table and sure enough, every member of my household did the exact same thing. Our dog loved it, in other words, too.

It's a simple, cute read which plays on the wonderful relationship of people and their pet dogs. show less

Fox and Chick are friends who are rather different -- Fox is serious and practical while Chick is emotional and imaginative. But they always end up enjoying their time together no matter what.

This story of friendship is lovely, peppered with humor and heart. The book consists of three chapters/stories. In the first, Fox is planning on a quiet boat ride alone when Chick decides to tag along and imagines increasingly worse fates for them out on the water. The middle story is about an show more unexpected gift Chick gets which sets them at unease until Fox reassures them everything will be okay. Finally, Fox wakes up early to see the sunrise but is derailed when Chick wants to accompany but cannot get ready fast enough.

I love that Chick provides plenty of humor to Fox's 'straight man' routine, but the comedy is never poking fun at Chick per se. Their friendship is always the key takeaway. The language used is relatively simple and direct, which makes this book a good choice for beginning readers. The inclusion of chapters/stories makes for easy places to take a break and/or for a child to feel truly accomplished when reaching the end of the whole book.

The illustrations are gentle watercolors with a somewhat muted palette, although they are still colorful. (I'm not sure how to describe that better; colors are used but they aren't particularly super bold.) Fox and Chick express a number of emotions through facial expressions and other nonverbal cues, making the illustrations a nice complement to the text. The overall style evokes that of a comic book, with panels and conversation bubbles.

The gender of either character is not specified, which I guess is better than automatically labelling them both as male. However, I think most readers have been conditioned to assume male if not told otherwise. And, since we're dealing only with animal characters, there is no diversity to speak of with this title. show less