Book Review

My first book review. "Varmints" by Helen Ward - Illustrated by Marc Craste

Wow.

It's "Guess How much I Love" you meets "Blade Runner".

I may be a little late- as this book came out last year- but it's new to me. I love it. In recent years I have had the feeling of being whacked in the face with a frying pan of great art once before; when my daughter and I discovered Tony DiTerlizzi. Now- I've been whacked again - by Marc Craste. (animator)
The story- simple- pure- straight forward -but deep- tho not heavy handed. Save the environment. This generation is tuned in to that message very much.
The book designer deserves a lot of the credit- this book is gorg-e-ous. It has vellum! The publishers had such faith in it's uniqueness- they went all out. I love that it's soft cover- I love that it's one tiny fraction away from a comic book/graphic novel. When my 9 year old daughter saw it on the kitchen counter fresh out of the amazon envelope - her reaction was "That is -cooooool." See- 9 year olds like picture books- they are still young enough to thirst for the visual - I can't see a small child drawn to this as much. She was. She already asked if she could have it. I lose all my good books to her -we have to share.
This art is beautiful- rich- lush-saturated. Cinematic - "animated" - complicated -absolutely sings " make me move". And they did! Marc Craste made a 24 minute movie. Like the Eddie Money song goes;
"I think I'm in love."

See animated trailer HERE.

Book info HERE.