The Visitor
I love the art work that makes up this book. There are cutouts that overlay the illustrations, that give each page in this book, a multi-dimensional look. The beginning pages are dark but as the story begins to unfold, more color is added to each page and by the time the story is over, the final page is bursting with color.
The story itself was different. Elise lives by herself and she is scared of everything: people, trees, etc. Elise never leaves her house, hence the dark coloring of the pages. One day a blue paper airplane flies into her tidy home’s window and well, Elise had to get rid of it! The next day, a boy knocks on her door to retrieve his airplane but first he must use Elise’s bathroom (he urgently needed to use her facilities), if he can. When he returns, he inquiries about some neat things he saw in her house. Elise answers the boy’s questions and before long, he has spent his whole day with her.
I thought it was amazing that they spent the whole day together and no one questioned this. Where did this boy come from? Didn’t Elise feel strange/apprehensive having contact with someone that she had feared earlier? When the boy gets ready to leave, they finally inquire about what their names are, really? I thought the last page was different too. Why doesn’t she ask the boy to help her on this? I understand where the author wanted to go with this story but I just didn’t feel the warmth that I should have felt. I liked how the illustrations reflected the story.
3
