Author: Dušan Petričić
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is often reward aplenty!
It's Kids Can Press day today on my blog, and I have two reviews of cool books both from the same publisher, and both aimed at young children. My Family Tree and Me (not to be confused with Me and My Family Tree) is by storied writer Dušan Petričić, who has a long list of books to his name. I've often railed in my blog against manga created in the west, but presented in Japanese form: back to front (from our perspective). Well here's a book that's both back-to-front and front-to-back - and it makes sense!
The "story" here is nothing more than a family history told in poetical form, but it's amusingly illustrated with a weird and wonderful diversity of characters (that pesky neighbor's kid even manages to get his face in there at one point!). The book follows the father's lineage from the front to the center of the book, and the mother's lineage from the back to the center, both meeting in a large family portrait in the middle. Though I don't normally talk about book covers, because writers typically have little to do with them, this one is cool because for once it follows the story exactly - showing both sides of a "family tree". It was a delight instead of a disappointment.
It's an inventive and charming idea and it works. I read this with my thirteen-year-old who is obviously way too old for this kind of book, but we were both of us laughing by the end - or rather by the middle. I recommend it as a great learning tool for children who ask "Where did I come from?" Obviously there are several answers to that question(!) and this is only one of them, but it's a good one!
