At the Pond
At the Pond - Front Cover
There are just some books that need to be hardcover and At the Pond is one of those books. And if you can find a library bound copy (without “borrowing” it forever from the library) I highly suggest that one. There’s just something about the creak from the plastic-y clear cover, the heaviness of the hardcover, and the height of the book itself that goes along with the wordless story from Geraldo Valério.
At the Pond is a simple, elegant wordless story that really takes you on a journey. It reminds me of the Journey books by Aaron Becker. Beautiful, extraordinary, full-page illustrations that you can spend so much time on as you seek all the details and try to describe each hue of blue or green. This really is a beautiful book.
Instead of sharing quotes, like usual, I’ll share just a couple of pictures from the book.
At the Pond - Geraldo Valério
Pretty amazing, right? The illustrations take you into a whole other world. It’s kind of like Disneyland, only so much better! Even the colors are so alive and with each animal either moving or looking in a different direction it gives so much movement to the page. There’s nothing static to the story. It moves right along as the water in the pond moves the boy and his dog through this mystical land.
At the Pond - Geraldo Valério
Even though these illustrations are contained within a book, they appear life-sized or even bigger than life especially with the close-up illustrations like the one above.
Valério’s story is an opinion on our relationship with nature. I find that my own kids got this from “reading” the book the first time around and all the other times they have picked it up - we’ve checked it out a few times now - they make up their own story to go with the pictures. I remember my sister and I used to do this to music videos. We would put the television on mute and do our own narrations. We thought we were pretty funny!
I used to find wordless picture books intimidating because I didn’t know the exact story the author/illustrator wanted, but I have found that some of the most clever people are these exact author/illustrators who create stories using mere pictures. They illustrate in such a way that you will not miss their story or be too far off the mark. Then just let your imagination and your children’s imagination take over. There really isn’t a wrong answer here.
So, pick up At the Pond to begin your “summer is almost here” celebration because if there is ever a season to let your mind run free - it is summer.
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