Sketch
Jacques Goldstyn
Greystone Kids

Almost as soon he’s born the baby seems a little different, in appearance especially. His parents adore him and name him Sketch. They watch avidly as he does amusing things, a bit wild on occasion.

However the place where the family lives is a perfect town with straight streets and identical houses where everything has a place and everything works on time. Orthodoxy rules.

It’s when Sketch encounters other children that things get a bit challenging, though the boy isn’t bothered; he merely gets on with what he likes to do – investigate and invent. When he starts school, the headteacher looks with displeasure at his scruffiness and expects trouble from Sketch. His teachers look disapprovingly at his writing – a jumble of lowercase and capital letters – and tell him to write as the others do and they certainly don’t appreciate his active imagination. One member of staff, the art teacher . Miss Beauregard, does create an environment wherein Sketch is happy; she loves his work, which is so different from that of the other pupils and gives him words of encouragement, telling him to persevere.

At High School, Sketch bonds with some other artistic students – Flow, a dancer, dark, handsome Muddy who has an air of mystery about him

and Doodle who is forever changing his shape and form; these new friends give him strength as they become inseparable. Part of that strength enables him to turn down their idea of moving away, for Sketch has a rather different idea.

This whimsical picture book is an ode to divergent thinking and creativity that will appeal especially to imaginative readers, including those older than the usual picture book audience.