Garmann's Summer

Author: Stian Hole
Rating:
Reading Level: K to 3rd

Pages: n.p.
Publisher: Eerdmans
Edition: Hardcover, 2008

What an unusual book. At first glance, the images turned me off -- from the cover to the first pages -- with the weirdly proportioned heads/bodies done with photo-collages. Then.. I got sucked into this style and most importantly, I got mesmerized by the text and by the matter-of-fact tone of everyone's answer to Garmann's queries about death and fears. The illustrations eventually reminded me of Terry Gillian's work for Monty Python's Flying Circus with many pages featuring curving flower stems and vines and the unlikely pairings of objects: the ancient aunt on a skateboard above skyscrapers or the bus load of images of famous jazz and other musicians... So, this is a very strange experience: from "Ugh" to "Brilliant!!!"


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