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Summary
Summary
A brave shadow finds a more colorful life in this joyous picture book by the acclaimed author of The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles and illustrator of Sidewalk Flowers .
Smoot the shadow has been living a yawn-filled life for years. His boy never laughs and never leaps, so Smoot never does either . . . until the day he pops free, and decides to hit the road in search of the life he dreams about. And as he enjoys his first colorful day-singing, dancing, and playing-other shadows watch him, and they become brave, too. The frog's shadow takes the shape of a prince, the dragonfly's shadow that of a dragon. Even the rock's shadow gets in on the excitement. But what will become of the timid beings their shadows have left behind? Will they finally be inspired to find their own daring?
Author Notes
Michelle Cuevas graduated from Williams College and holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Virginia. She lives in Massachusetts.
Sydney Smith was born in Nova Scotia and has a BFA in drawing and printmaking from NSCAD University. He is an award-winning children's book illustrator whose work can sometimes also be found in magazines and on festival posters and album covers. Sydney also plays a little banjo, stands on his hands, and can ride his bike really fast. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife and baby son.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-A bored shadow cuts loose and explores the wider world. Tired of being bound to a young boy and having to "[brush] the same teeth, [frown] the same frown, and [draw] the same pictures-always staying perfectly inside the line," Smoot the shadow dreams of singing "canary-yellow songs" and dancing "in wildflower red." When he's suddenly popped free of his boy, he skips rope in the playground with a pair of kids, rides a merry-go-round, and climbs a tall tree-all captured in a six-page wordless sequence. The other shadows see all the fun Smoot's having and decide to join the rebellion. A frog's shadow takes the shape of a haughty prince, a dragonfly's shadow transforms into a fearsome fire-breathing dragon, and the seemingly humble shadow of a rock morphs into a towering castle. The shadows are having more fun than their owners! Just when it seems as if the entire world's population of shadows will leave their natural places, Smoot helps bring them back where they belong and, in the process, helps the shadow's owners-and his own boy-live life more fully. Confident storytelling and humorous details ("He packed a few things-some shade, some moonlight, a change of underpants-and hit the road.") make for a delightful read-aloud. Smith's loose line and fluid ink and watercolors perfectly capture the ever-so-slightly mischievous and joyful tone of Cuevas's text. Thick black crayon defines Smoot and his fellow shadowkind. VERDICT Young readers will be hooked by the beguiling premise and respond to the gently delivered message about living life with intention and imagination.-Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Smoot is a shadow attached to a boy whose life is terribly dull: "Every day they brushed the same teeth, frowned the same frown, and drew the same pictures-always staying perfectly inside the lines." While Smoot's life is boring, Smith's ink, brush, and watercolor portraits are anything but. To emphasize Smoot's inky blackness, Smith (The White Cat and the Monk) keeps the colors bright and contrast high; tiled roofs and cobbled streets give the city backdrop a European feel. One day Smoot comes unstuck from his boy and seizes his new freedom, jumping rope in the park, riding a carousel, and dashing through a landscape of wild splashes of watercolor. When other bored shadows jump at the chance to live out their own suppressed dreams, Smoot must persuade them all to return. The shadow's change of heart is a bit convenient, but Cuevas's (The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles) writing sparkles. Smoot's condition as a shadow parallels the way most humans are tethered to inescapable obligations. When his boy breaks out and starts to live large, it's easy to share Smoot's joy. Ages 4-8. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In the middle of a city filled with Old World stuccoed walls and tiled roofs, a boy's shadow yearns to break free. "If life is a book, then Smoot the Shadow had been reading the same yawn-colored page for seven and a half years." The light-skinned boy connected to the protagonistclad in shorts, jacket, and baseball capleads a rigid, mostly black-and-white life; he colors inside the lines. Smoot (a blend of "smudge" and "soot"?) finally breaks free. As the shadow wordlessly, gleefully skips rope, rides a carousel, and climbs a tree, the boy is ever watchful from the margins. Inspired, other shadows follow their dreams: a frog's shadow turns into a prince, and a dragonfly's breathes fire. Imagining unintended consequences were this to continue, Smoot quickly finds satisfying, child-sized solutions for his restless counterparts and reunites with his boy, whose own spark has been ignited. Cuevas' plotline radiates freshness and celebrates the rewards of risk-taking. Smith has a keen understanding of the power of the contrast between blackness and color. Employing ink and watercolor, he skillfully exploits this dynamic to both foreground the silhouetted characters and, in concert with decisions about when to use frames or full bleeds and controlled lines or looser strokes, to underscore the distinctions between a constricted and unfettered existence. Not since Peter Pan's has a shadow commanded such well-deserved attention. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Imagine living a life so predictable that your own shadow rebels against you. Smoot the shadow does not know the name of the boy he is forced to follow; Smoot only knows that every day is exactly the same, with the boy never, ever doing anything lively. When Smoot is unexpectedly unstuck, he cannot wait to try new things. He takes off for the park, skipping rope, riding a merry-go-round, and climbing trees. In each exuberant ink-and-watercolor illustration, the boy, identifiable by his red cap and gray jacket, can be seen hesitantly following along the edges. Soon other shadows notice Smoot and become emboldened to follow their own dreams, and shadows of a flower, cricket, grasshopper, frog, dragonfly, and rock leave their anchors behind. Worried about the consequences of shadows on the loose, Smoot helps each pair find ways to incorporate their big wishes into their daily lives with their nonshadow companions. Finally only Smoot's boy needs to reunite with his shadow, and he's eager to shake up his daily life, too. Just like Smoot and the boy, the text and illustrations of this book fit together seamlessly, each making the other better. Smith's inky shadows and bright watercolor washes are imbued with lively movement, which perfectly capture Smoot's boundless energy. Inspiring without being at all sappy, Smoot's rebellion produces rich results.--Whitehurst, Lucinda Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
PICTURE BOOKS ABOUT SHADOWS, darkness and echoes are perennial and enduring. Still I was surprised to see that this fall, three attractive books about shadows are being published, and in all three, the shadows - in one way or another - become detached from the protagonists, showing their divergent and distinctive personalities. They are uniformly more playful, brave and clever than their human counterparts. I typically stay away from children's books that dispatch moral instruction with a sense of authority, but as it turns out, when it comes to shadows, the impulse to impart wisdom is especially difficult to suppress. Shadows are proxies for the unconscious, repressed or unrealized side of the self. It's not a bad thing to offer stories for children that foster confidence through introspection. It's not a bad thing to encourage children to be more courageous. But as these three shadow stories show, a book can rise or fall on the strength of how it does those things. In "Smoot, a Rebellious Shadow," the tables are turned, and the story is told from the perspective of Smoot, the shadow. Smoot's adventure begins with the words, "But shadows can dream and when they do, the dreams are filled with color." Not unlike Pinocchio, Smoot desires a real life - a life filled with adventure and "colored freedom." Colored freedom? And then, just like that - "pop," we read - he becomes unstuck and embarks on a raucous adventure filled with bravery and bravado (just like a real boy). The other shadows take note and remark, "If he can follow his dreams, we can too." Smoot's brief adventure - which, weirdly, happens against a Tuscan or Umbrian hilltop backdrop - has a positive influence on the entire world of shadowy figures. In the end, there is only one person who still needs Smoot's help - the boy who cast the sooty shadow in the first place. He was watching all along. And now (spoiler alert) he wants to be more like Smoot. As in his previous books like "Sidewalk Flowers" and "The White Cat and the Monk," Sydney Smith's illustrations have a sort of effortless freedom that belies the careful pacing and thoughtful page designs. There is one glorious, wordless spread where Smoot cuts across the gutter against a clamor of color. In the end, it's the illustrations I admire most in this book. I have been an admirer of Serge Bloch ("Reach for the Stars," "Butterflies in My Stomach") for a long time, and "George and His Shadow" didn't let me down. For me, his offbeat artwork is reminiscent of the best French poster art from between the world wars - artists like Villemot or Savignac. If you ever wonder things like, Who would have thought that a puck of raw hamburger topped with a raw egg would be delicious? Well, Bloch might have! George, the book's main character, lives a truly unremarkable life - a sort of shadow of what might have been. The book begins with, "It seemed like an ordinary day. A day just like any other." The short, clipped words and sentences complement Bloch's illustrative approach perfectly. It's as though the writer, Davide Cali, wrote the book with Bloch in mind. ("He'll want to draw a vacuum cleaner sucking up the shadow at some point, I suppose.") Here too, the protagonist's castaway shadow - defying George at every turn - forces him out of his monotonous, humdrum routine. In the end, the shadow helps George to become more comfortable with who he is: some middle-aged French guy with Le Corbusier glasses and a green tartan fedora. Still, I'd really like to go over to his apartment sometime for Calvados and steak Tartare - and who knows what else? Two sisters named Natalia and Lauren O'Hara are the makers of "Hortense and the Shadow," a handsome debut picture book. According to a publicity note they wrote, they grew up in a "grim little town in the north of England" but are descended from both Austro-Hungarian nobility and Polish butchers - an ideal background for these self-professed admirers of Lemony Snicket, Hans Christian Andersen and Carson Ellis. (What about Edward Gorey?) When we meet Hortense, she is angry and sad that her shadow follows her everywhere. What a pain. Perhaps her shadow is a metaphor for the fate of that annoying Austro-Hungarian nobility - always tagging along, unwanted and uninvited. So Hortense finds a way to lose her shadow. That's going great for her, until she is saved from a band of marauding nighttime bandits by none other than her decidedly braver shadow. Full of remorse, she exclaims, "Oh, shadow, I saw things all wrong. . . . What's a page without ink, or a deer without spots, or a moon without night? You're part of me, shadow. Please come back!" Does Hortense's shadow return? You'll have to buy the book to find out. It's beautifully designed, with excellent production values, and if the story doesn't quite live up to its formidable ambitions, it's worth noting that they are admirably big indeed. 0 When it comes to shadows, the impulse to impart wisdom is strong. FRANK VIVA is the author and illustrator of picture books including "Along a Long Road" and "Outstanding in the Rain."
