João by a Thread
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
An intricate and exquisite tale of how bedtime fears can be transformed into wondrous dreams and magical adventures, by Hans Christian Andersen award–winning Roger Mello
As João tucks under a lovingly woven quilt, he asks himself: So it’s just me now? He curls up, getting cozy in bed, and soon the world of his dreams unspools on the page. The blanket in his bed unravels into deep rivers, lakes, valleys, reservoirs, mountain ranges, fishing nets full of tadpoles and gaping holes, until what’s left is just one long thread. When he feels alone and scared in the dark, João “sews words like patchwork” into a new blanket to cover himself up. He weaves the threads of his quilt until they form one long sentence, and soon, the nighttime is peppered with his own silvery, slippery words. Roger Mello draws like a shapeshifter – to look at his illustrations is always to see something you missed before (a stingray, a crescent moon nestled into the palm of João’s hand). His breathtaking line drawings, beaming in white thread against deep red, combined with poetic and bewildered language, make João by a Thread a book to take into bed at the edge of sleep, just before you start to dream.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"How big is the blanket that's covering João?/ As big as the bed?/ Or as big as the nighttime?" Taking a patterned blanket as focal point, Mello narrates a child's nighttime experience in this entrancing, question-filled book, which gestures toward the way connection (to family, to nature) can be felt, even when one is "alone with myself." Natural imagery—wind, mountains, rivers—describe João's restless moments beneath the blanket, the fear that engulfs him and unravels the textile, and the lullaby (a "word-blanket" he sews) with which he soothes himself. Philosophical text unfolds against cherry-red pages starkly accented with black and white, while the coverlet's spidery weave fills almost every spread, its design shifting as João—presented as a long-limbed featureless form—ventures through the night until resting beneath a blanket of his own redesign in this dreamlike volume. Ages 5–8.
