The Party

Reid, Barbara. The Party. Toronto, ON: Scholastic Canada, 1997.

This book is an energetic recounting of a typical family picnic and party. The rhyming text is fun and uses rich language, but it sometimes feels forced or stumbles into awkward cadence; there is no question that the real star of this book is the illustration in plasticine. Not only are the technique, detail and execution of the three-dimensional work extraordinay in and of themselves, but the illustrations are fantastically expressive. Their portrayal of character, whether it be the looming kiss from Aunt Joan or the cake-smeared faces of kids hiding under the picnic table, takes the medium beyond simple novelty to art form. The changing cast of the afternoon and evening light creates and uncanny sense of the passing of the day - the tones slowly deepen and the candles and string of porch lights cast a yellow glow on the surfaces around them. The illustrations also extend and explain the text so that a raid on the dragon's treasure in the text becomes a plan to steal a bowl of chips out from under a sleeping uncle. Even the photography adds to the story with its versatility - in one spread it creates a blurred-motion image of dizzy children while in another the image is crisp enough to see the finger-prints of the artist.