fresita's Full Review: Roger Faller - The Adventures of Polo
In a book intended for children who are not yet able to read, "The Adventures of Polo" by Régis Faller tells the story through the use of illustrations without text.
Synopsis:
Polo, an adventurous dog, sets off on a journey that will take him to some unusual places. Stepping off the tiny island that hold his tree home, we walks out onto a tightrope that soon becomes a set of stairs, which he climbs before sliding down the other side into a cloud.
Going from one unusual place to another, Polo visits some fish under the sea, rides on a whale, flies to a volcanic island, where he roasts hot dogs over the hot lava, parties with some monkeys at the top of a tree, takes a submarine ride, climbs to the top of a glacier, where he angers the local polar bear by stopping by his igloo uninvited, takes a trip with a snowman aboard an ice ship and stops by the moon, where makes friends with the aliens before zooming back to earth on an asteroid.
My Thoughts:
I like the idea of a book that's told by illustrations so that kids who are not yet able to read can understand the story on their own. At times an illustrations takes up a complete page, but usually there are more than one per page, often arranged in up to three lines with two or three pictures per line. The pictures should be read just as text would be read, from left to right and from top to bottom. This helps young children develop their understanding of "book sense."
The problem that I have with this book is that it is simply too long. Children who are not yet old enough to read don't yet have a long enough attention span to carefully look at 268 individual illustrations covering 75 pages. There are no chapter breaks to allow for a convenient pause, either.
Even my kids, who are already reading, find this book too long. They begin by looking at each picture, but after a few pages start skimming, just trying to finish the book.
The pictures, which are bright and colorful, are filled with lots of creative twists and turns. Any young child who randomly opens the book and looks at the pictures in any order would probably find them quite interesting, but that would defeat the purpose of the book.
I wish the author had divided the different parts of Polo's adventures into separate stories, which could have been published each in its own book, eliminating the problem of one seemingly-endless story that gets put aside before it's finished. As it is, I would recommend this book only as a collection of bright, interesting illustrations that young children would enjoy looking at. Just don't expect your child to actually want to sit down and finish the story.
By Régis Faller. Published by Roaring Book Press. 2002.
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