What is so unique about this book is that there are no words throughout; the entire book is pictures. Here you can actually see all of the pages of the book, but due to concerns on the legality of having the pages directly on this blog I have chosen to provide the link.You may thing think that there can’t be much complexity to picture books, especially one with no words, but some are far from simple. A misconception that has always bothered me is that picture books are meant only for children. Picture book authors are faced with the challenge of having to take a complicated topic and make it understandable at a basic level so that all ages can gain something from it. Why? accomplishes this extremely well. The main theme of this picture book is war, and he navigates this topic exquisitely, and even with a little bit of humor, a necessity in this instance, to lighten up the density and heaviness of a topic like war. He took this topic and artfully demonstrates the idea that in war all sides lose, and that once a war starts both sides lose sight of the reason they’re fighting and get wrapped up in retaliation and revenge.
His decision to create this picture book without words is an intelligent one that is done with a purpose. When words and pictures are on a page, I, and many other people, tend to gloss over the pictures and not give the graphics that attention and analysis that they deserve. The misconception is that you don’t have to pay attention to the graphics or pictures because the words will tell the story. But there are often vital details in the pictures. By choosing only pictures as his method of communication, Papov, is forcing people to focus only on the pictures and search out the details in the illustrations that would go unnoticed otherwise. For example, and my favorite detail in the entire book, on the last Papov refers back to the beginning of the book by having the frog hold what the rat held and having the rat hold what the frog held.
In addition to referring to earlier portions of the story to create meaning, Papov also frequently uses foreshadowing. That just goes to show that Papov has kept the picture book at a high level literarily buy using literary techniques. The use of foreshadowing in the books really helps to keep the audience actively engaged in the book and continuing to search for the tiny details.
I would highly recommend this book to everyone because of its high quality and unique nature. Once you finish the book, you can’t help but stop and think about what you have read and go back and examine all of the pictures again, and hopefully after reading this, you will have a greater appreciation for all of the additional information that a simple picture can articulate.
