Du Iz Tak?

Product Information

The pictures depict more than you initially might think so every time you read the story you find new details. With exquisitely detailed illustrations and tragicomic flair, Carson Ellis invites readers to imagine the dramatic possibilities to be found in even the humblest backyard.

The illustrations are wonderful and each spread offers plenty of details about life in the bugs' world - a twig is not a twig, a toadstool grows, insects serenade one another under a moonlit sky - the circle of life continues. With minimal text and crisp images, Ellis’s book is deceptively simple, but don’t be fooled; this whimsical story requires a close reading to truly absorb all its subtle delights. This extraction of meaning is an individual process for each of us, and in this respect it is similar to the way in which we make sense of pictures in a wordless picturebook. Ellis (Home, 2015) elevates gibberish to an art form with her brilliant account of a few bugs, who discover a green shoot sprouting from the ground. Editors who pitch picture books at international fairs are accustomed to having to explain the text to foreign publishers in a language they both understand, but for Candlewick’s Liz Bicknell, selling the rights to Carson Ellis’s Caldecott Honor book Du Iz Tak?Come and peer into a miniature world of little puppets to see a delightful group of friends exploring their ever-changing home. Because the story follows events shown in the pictures and some phrases are repeated, guessing what the bugs are saying is satisfying, but it also allows emergent readers to interpret the text on an equal footing to adults. As you peer into a miniature world insects pop up from hidey holes and go about their daily tasks, chatting in their own special language. Written entirely in the playful and amusing language of bugs, it isn’t necessary to speak fluent moth or ladybug to enjoy the growth and metamorphoses creatively combined through Carson Ellis’s delightful words and fanciful illustrations as the seasons subtly transform. To me it was one of those texts that was fun to read, more like a theatrical performance done by a parent.

A book thta continues to develop with rereads - you are encouraged to decode the language that on first glance looks like gobbledeegook. This delightful group of friends busily inhabit their ever-changing home as the seasons come and go, creating a gloriously visual feast of a show.With its compact set and pool of performers this miniature epic is perfect for touring to all kinds of settings. of the caterpillar dangling upside down from a twig is later repeated by others so what might first be read as 'ta-da' later seems to mean 'bye bye'. This book was a total hit with my three year old who loved the made up language and would use the words.