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Summary
Summary
A 2015 Foreword INDIES finalist in Picture Books (Children's)
"Kuhlmann's detailed art will pull in readers who like to see how things fit together, while his message is abundantly clear for everyone." -Kirkus Reviews
Torben Kulhmann's stunningly illustrated, nearly wordless tale offers a fascinating window into an imaginary, yet hauntingly familiar world under our feet, where a mole suddenly recognizes the precarious balance between progress and preservation. Kulhmann's open ended text encourages thoughtful exploration into possible solutions, and his delightful endpapers depict a montage of solutions that could very well save the moles' world and ours.
Author Notes
Torben Kuhlmann studied illustration and communications design at the Hamburg University of Applied Science, with book illustration as his main subject. In June 2012 he finished his studies by writing and illustrating the children's book Lindbergh--The Tale of a Flying Mouse. This was his first picture book, and within a very short time it became a best seller. It has now been translated into more than thirty languages. Further mouse adventures followed with Armstrong (2016), Edison (2018), and Einstein (2021), all of which have achieved cult status.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Kuhlmann follows his sprightly debut, Lindbergh (2014), with a somber social commentary, some of whose significance will be grasped only by older readers. In 15 cutaway spreads of life underground, he depicts the rise and fall of a civilization of moles. A single mole settles under an idyllic daisy-studded meadow and digs for coal. The coal-mining operation takes off, attracting mole immigrants who arrive with suitcases and headscarves and live in tenements illuminated with bare light bulbs. Massive industrial growth with ever-larger mining machinery culminates in a metropolis glittering with lights and choked with traffic. The story's most poignant scene is a cross-section of the now-prosperous but lonely moles sitting in rooms crammed with enormous speakers, cathode-ray tube TVs, and rotary telephone assemblies. "Many generations later," Kuhlmann concludes, "the moles' green meadow had completely disappeared. Almost." The final page hints at a solution. Even if younger readers don't fully understand the allegory, they will be transfixed by the gracefully drafted and soberly colored paintings of the moles, their intricately engineered machines, and their exhausted, poorly-lit world. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
This is an unsubtle but nevertheless compelling parable of environmental destruction. The almost-wordless book traces--in shadowy shades of brown, gray, and sepia--the double-edged progress of a mole community. Roots give way to wires, burrows turn to mines, moles languish before glowing screens, and the meadow above becomes an industrial wasteland. Slight touches of humor and lingering traces of green offer hope. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In stunning watercolor-and-pencil illustrations, Kuhlmann (Lindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse, 2014) delivers a cautionary tale about caring for the environment. It begins simply a mole moves to a verdant green field and makes a home burrow. Soon more moles arrive, and the burrow begins to grow. Kuhlmann, a skilled technical illustrator, includes subtle details in his architectural scenes that mirror the development of industrialization. First, a lantern appears in a tunnel then electric lightbulbs, indoor stoves, and plumbing. Fed up with picks for digging, the moles invent a steam-powered mechanical shovel and then a massive coal-powered drill. The mole community soon divides into hard-hatted laborers and fedora-clad business moles. Soon not a shred of dirt appears in the moles' homes and offices; where they were once surrounded by earth, now only exists regimented cubicles and filing cabinets, and a final spread reveals what they have wrought on the surface. Is it dire? For sure, though the endpapers reveal a future where the moles band together to preserve what nature they have left. Kuhlmann's meticulous, precise illustrations are the star of this nearly wordless book, and each vivid spread of expanding modernization reveals an enormous amount of detail and evokes deep emotion. A poignant picture book with an unmistakable message and gorgeous, mesmerizing artwork.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2015 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-In this mostly wordless allegory, a mole moves into a verdant field. Soon, more moles join him, each new page depicting an expanding underground civilization. As time goes by, increasingly advanced digging machinery enlarges the moles' domain, creating a bustling metropolis but progressively destroying and polluting the meadow above until there is only a small patch of green in the glum industrial landscape. Front endpapers feature "History of Moletown"-black-and-white "photos" with allusions to iconic historical photographs such as "Lunch atop a Skyscraper"-while back endpapers include photos of the moles' efforts to preserve what's left of the environment. Kuhlmann's spreads masterfully play with shifts in perspective. Vignettes of moles in their burrows alternate with scenes of larger scope, such as the dizzying view of spiral scaffolding in a deep tunnel or an expansive urban intersection reminiscent of Times Square. VERDICT A poignant statement about the spread of civilization resulting in the destruction of nature, thought-provoking and unique.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The evolution of a city built beneath a green meadow by anthropomorphic moles is narrated visually. The industrious moles build their elaborate, busy civilization without paying much attention to the natural worldwith predictably bad consequencesin a largely wordless allegory about the downside of progress. Kuhlmann's art for the underground city is richly done in earthy tones, with the gray-blue of the moles' coveralls and the glow of lamps, screens, and lightbulbs punctuating the sense of being constantly indoors, electricity in use everywhere. Bits of telephones and gaming handsets decorate the moles' compact living and working spaces. Underground trains ferry commuters in all directions, including up and down. The city's development proceeds to the point where vehicles packed end to end crowd the square of a heavily stacked city as mole-oriented signage looms over the streets: "smutch," "sand," "soil." The devastation that has been wrought on the surface above them appears in a double-page spread just after this: the formerly green meadow is a wasteland of derricks and piles of bare earth. It's only on the rear endpapers that hope appears, with thumbnail black-and-white "photos" showing a wind farm rising above the bare-dirt meadow and a mole enjoying a bit of fresh air. Kuhlmann's detailed art will pull in readers who like to see how things fit together, while his message is abundantly clear for everyone. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.