Clay Boy - Hardcover

Jos. A. Smith, illustrator of Hurry! by Jessie Haas, Ogres! Ogres! Ogres!: A Feasting Frenzy from A to Z by Nicholas Heller, and A Creepy Countdown by Charlotte Huck, lives in New York City.

Ages 3^-8. With a smiling giant toddler striding over the landscape, the jacket art for this picture book will grab kids' attention, and they won't be disappointed when they hear the story and see the brilliantly colored dramatic pictures. The tale is adapted from a Russian folktale, and the storytelling voice is very simple and immediate. Grandpa makes a piece of clay into a boy who jumps up and yells, "I am here! I am hungry!" Clay Boy eats and eats and wants more and more. He gulps down everything in the house, including the geese and the cat and the dog. He gets bigger and hungrier. In one gulp, he swallows Grandpa and Grandma. He walks down the street and swallows the whole village; in one gulp, he swallows a peasant and a horse with a wagonload of hay. He swells bigger and bigger until he meets a clever, little white goat, which takes aim with its horns at the big, fat belly. Turn the page, and "Cr-rash! Clay Boy breaks into a hundred pieces," and out tumbles the whole village for an exuberant celebration.

In their play with scale, the illustrations express a wonderful combination of the monstrous and the cozy. Even when he is swallowing the world, Clay Boy remains a cute toddler in his waddling walk, his eager smile, his stiff gestures. And always with the monstrous farce, there are reminders in the pictures of small, delicate things that are strong: the petals of an iris flower, the wings of a hovering butterfly, the fingernails of the craftsman. Kids will identify with the bad child monster who causes chaos and also with the heroic little trickster goat that destroys the giant and saves the world. Hazel Rochman