The Wordy Book

STARRED REVIEW! ★ "Talk about painting with words. Author/illustrator Paschkis plays with them, too, and encourages readers to do likewise. In the process, she explores the elasticity and seemingly endless possibilities of language. The vividly colored, wittily detailed, folk-style paintings on double-page spreads organically incorporate words into the artwork in wondrous, creative ways... The book makes a great springboard for creative-thinking activities in writing and art units in classroom and library programs... In a word, a feast for the eyes, brain, and artistic imagination."

“With tree trunks whose bark is layer on layer of sinewy words, with landscapes that curve and coax along with playful energy about sounds and meanings, and with a sensibility that is part New Age and all childlike, Paschkis winds her way through paintings that ask questions and questions that point to many answers. The art is folkloric, with colorful birds, animals, and people, but also surreal in the compositions, which provide readers with plenty to consider… This book asks a lot but has perfect appeal for the dreamy child who loves to be immersed in both words and pictures.”

A Publishers Weekly High-Concept Picture Book for ChildrenSelected for 2021 Society of Illustrators Original Art Exhibition"Some children’s books feel like classics the first time one encounters them. ‘What does a word think about?’ the artist and writer Julie Paschkis asks on the first double-page spread of The Wordy Book. This and other evocative questions… punctuate a dazzling array of richly colored, riveting paintings. Folkloric and elegant, this book invites slow, meditative drifting. Paschkis is the illustrator of more than 25 children’s books, and her poetic sensibility girds every…

"Devoted to the tricks and beauties of the English language, The Wordy Book, by Julie Paschkis, has lush illustrations and an enigmatic text that would be useful for sparking conversation at bedtime with anyone over perhaps the age of 4 or 5. 'When does there become here?' Ms. Paschkis asks. 'What tells me more—an if or an or?' These posers are accompanied by richly colored folkloric pictures, many with words woven into their patterns. The question 'Do you see what I see?' runs beside a painting of a white vase—or is it the space between two silhouetted faces?—with flowers whose petals and…

“This mesmerizing, exquisitely designed book includes new paintings as well as a collection of paintings that Paschkis, one of my favorite illustrators, has created over the years… She pairs these paintings with thought-provoking questions, some more mysterious (‘When does the end turn into a beginning?’) than others (‘Could you please repeat that?’). Delightfully, each painting bursts with words: They beg the reader to slow down and linger. They remark upon the artwork, and the artwork extends their meaning. They nudge, interrogate, and provoke. Pay close attention to what many of these…

"There is an Alice in Wonderland quality to the book: The questions play with the limits of logic (What tells me more, an IF or an OR?) and with the existential restlessness of childhood (When does there become here? When does then become now?); they invite the fundamental curiosity at the heart of compassion (Do you see what I see?) and emanate a radiant love of life (What is the sum of a summer day?) consonant with the vitality of Paschkis’s paintings — this parallel language of shape and color just as rich and eloquent as the language of words, as playful and abstract as the language of…