Animal City
Joan Negrescolor
Chronicle Books
I’m always on the lookout for books that celebrate story telling and reading, and this one does just that. The stories in this book however have a most unusual setting and an unlikely audience.
Without further ado let’s go to Nina’s favourite place, a secret jungle city where lost objects might be discovered, though now its only inhabitants are plants and animals, for nature has completely taken over.
Nina loves to observe the animals and they love to see her too bringing with her as she does, storybooks to share with them.
Different kinds of stories are favoured by her audience: the monkeys like space adventures; the flamingos’ taste is for myths and legends while the snake has a penchant for sea-related poetry.
All however agree that the very best story of all is one featuring themselves in their wild ‘animal city’ as Nina calls it in this metafictive turn.
Where has the storyteller come from? Why is she there? What has happened to cause the humans to leave their urban homes and where are they now?
These questions immediately come to mind as one reads the brief text, although a fascinated child audience will likely come up with a number of others, for each of Joan Negrescolor’s striking spreads offers much to explore and speculate upon.
His chosen striking colour palette and flatness of the illustrations serve to emphasise the strange, somewhat dystopian nature of the entire book.
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