Pistes d'exploration

Construct a small cardboard frame to examine various parts of each picture. Discuss the different points of view.

Select one page and use it as the basis for a news broadcast story.

Discuss which scene you would like to spend time in and explain why.

Choose a scene and write what happens next.

Imagine a scene at a different time of day or night or in a different season. Talk with a friend about how things might change.

Construct a small cardboard frame to examine various parts of each picture. Discuss the different points of view.

Use one page of the book to tell a story for a news broadcast.

Discuss which scene you would like to spend time in.

Choose a page that is similar to your normal living environment. Compare and contrast the two spaces.

List all the things you can name on a page. 

Use clues from the cover to help you brainstorm what you know about Holland.

Pause at each two-page spread. Create a list of words (subdivided into nouns, adjectives and verbs) based on the illustrations. Write a short descriptive text for each spread.

Put yourself in the place of someone in one of the illustrations. Write a journal entry relating something exciting you just experienced or witnessed.

Animalia, Flotsam, Free Fall

Mots-clés

Picture book , city and country life , Holland , interesting illustrations , landscape , place , seek-and-find book , travel , wordless book

Commentaire descriptif

This visual tribute to the country of tulips, bicycles, windmills and more is a wordless picture book that readers will want to return to over and over. Its busy two-page spreads depicting seasonal outdoor scenes from parks to cityscapes to more rural settings, have a “Where's Waldo?” feel to them. Each is depicted with wit and warmth, and bustles with the energy of intricate detail. The illustrations are painted in vibrant tones bringing to mind Brueghel or the Dutch Masters. Each is presented from a birds' eye view, and reveals the private goings on within the walls of the adjacent buildings and houses as well. Watch a parade or an outdoor concert. Peek in on a ballet class, patients in their hospital rooms, and a woman sunning herself on a balcony. Check out the bickering, arm-flailing victims of a multi-vehicle accident. There are hundreds of compelling scenes to pore over, and they will change with every sitting.