Halibut Jackson

Rating:
Summary: An instant classic
Review: David Lucas tells through an elegant line and color scheme, an intelligent story about an adorable little boy -the shy and fashion oriented Halibut Jackson- in very few lines, which prove to be essential and enough to the narration. The book has an early 50's design throughout and is reminiscent of Bemelmans children stories, which just add to the overall charming narrative. A must!

Rating:
Summary: A delight to read
Review: One of the most beautifully-presented books I have read - the coloured pictures have a great amount of detail; children will enjoy picking out the highly-camouflaged Halibut Jackson from the carefully chosen background. Halibut Jackson is shy and does not like to be noticed, and so he wears increasingly bizarre costumes to blend in with his surroundings. Until one day, he is noticed... A gentle, amusing story, which very young children will appreciate.

Rating:
Summary: Action Jackson
Review: Sometimes I like to believe that the truly great picture books out there are the ones written by author/illustrators that have studied children's literature for years and years. I would imagine that they slaved to make the "good" picture book after many attempted (and failed) tries. Then finally, after years and years of effort, a picture book would come into fruition that epitomizes everything that the picture books of the past have led to. Then an author like David Lucas comes along and, in his first picture book, creates something as deeply original and wonderful as "Halibut Jackson" and my entire theory goes ka-blooey. "Halibut Jackson" is, to my mind, one of the finest picture books that I have had the pleasure of reading in a long long time. Simultaneously beautiful and detailed, the story is reminiscent of older picture books some forty years back. It's well worth a peek.

Halibut Jackson is a shy fellow. When he finds himself in a public situation where he must interact with other people, Halibut freaks. To avoid this problem, he has constructed clever clothing that blend into any situation. If he wants to go a-walking amongst the daisies, he merely slips on his flower covered poncho. If it's a trip to the library on his mind instead, on goes the book covered clothing. Everything is going perfectly well until one day Halibut gets an invitation to the palace for the very first time. Halibut wants to go, but the idea of being around so many party guests doesn't appeal to him. That next day he constructs a suit covered in silver, gold, and jewels, assuming he'll fit right in and never be noticed. But what Halibut didn't reckon with was that this was a garden party. Suddenly he's the center of attention, and everyone wants him to construct clothing for them. With this encouragement, Halibut goes into business, creating crazy clothing for every person's needs. Says the book, "And although he was still a little shy, it seemed not to matter so very much at all".

The story may not blow you away after reading it, but the illustrations in this puppy are to die for. Halibut Jackson himself walks around wearing clothing that, at times, look as if the author/illustrator was simply tracing a protractor for a design. I loved that despite the somewhat old-fashioned feeling of this tale (it's something about the use of lines and colors, I guess) the cast of characters that Halibut encounters is wonderfully raucously multi-racial. Heck, the king's black and the queen's white cementing this tale as definitely a twenty-first century picture book. I also loved the intricate details that fill the pages. Every spread features pictures that fight and contend with one another for the reader's attention. My favorite scene was of Mr. Jackson's clothing store at the end. By this point the shy tailor has truly let his imagination run wild. There's a suit that resembles the sun, a dress (with matching swan hat) of Monet's waterlilies, and a cot that's filled with a million different people.

Nostalgia is selling quite a lot of picture books these days. Adults are looking wistfully at their own favorites and trying to find modern creations that look and feel like such books as, "Make Way for Ducklings" or "Andy and the Lion". I think what "Halibut Jackson" does so well is that it captures the feeling we get from reading older picture books, but not the unfortunate stereotypes of the time period. Though steeped in old-fashioned storytelling techniques, this is truly a modern concoction that kids today will adore.


Rating:
Summary: A timeless book for all ages.
Review: This book is amazing. From the beautiful pictures to the easy to understand words, it is a book for all to love. My sons (ages 2 and 5) love this book so much that we sometimes read it up to four times a day. It's topic of shyness is one that we can all relate to in some way. My kids not only love the words, but they also have a great time of finding Halibut in the illustrations. We have taken this book out repeatedly from the library and now I am on Amazon.com to purchase it. I will cherish this book forever.

Rating:
Summary: Nice story, lots to look at in illustrations
Review: This is a nice story and the illustrations are very lively and enjoyable to look at. The only problem I saw was that the story had a great build up and then seemed to end rather abruptly. A nice story nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Nice story, lots to look at in illustrations
Review: This is a nice story and the illustrations are very lively and enjoyable to look at. The only problem I saw was that the story had a great build up and then seemed to end rather abruptly. A nice story nonetheless.