Du Iz Tak?

Product Information

Bicknell edited without an English translation—it only occurred to her after several rounds that there was a deliberate logic to the bugs’ seemingly nonsensical speech.

There’s an elusive yet distinctly joyful quality to Carson Ellis’s picture book that feels like suspended glee, or a laugh caught halfway in the throat. Ellis is best known as an illustrator, and her oversized gouache and ink spreads deftly balance playfulness and precision, intricacy and airy background. It stimulates conversation, discussion; children would have great fun giving the bugs names, describing their characters, predicting what might happen next and why in relation to what they already know of the world around them. Following the minute changes as the pages turn is to watch growth, transformation, death, and rebirth presented as enthralling spectacle.Very gently, Ellis suggests that humans have no idea what wonders are unfolding at their feet--and that what takes place in the lives of insects is not so different from their own. She is also the illustrator of The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket and Dillweed's Revenge: A Deadly Dose of Magic by Florence Parry Heide, and she collaborated with her husband, Colin Meloy, on the best-selling Wildwood series. This book is fabulous for helping adults to understand how a child with little language feels when sharing a book. When the plant grows taller and sprouts leaves, some young beetles arrive to gander, and soon--with the help of a pill bug named Icky--they wrangle a ladder and build a tree fort. And, honestly, if you think about it, picture books are full of words their audience doesn’t understand at first.

Because the story follows events shown in the pictures and some phrases are repeated, guessing what the bugs are saying is satisfying, but it also allows emergent readers to interpret the text on an equal footing to adults. Ross Welford introduces Time Travelling with a Tortoise, the sequel to Time Travelling with a Hamster, and a whole new time travel adventure! Even backstage is beautiful, with the puppets nestling in an old fashioned sewing box, and the exit corridor decorated with rag-bunting and little Du Iz Tak?

The book attracted strong interest from foreign publishers, and has sold into 11 territories so far. Carson matches them with dialogue in the enchanting foreign language of the elegantly dressed beetles and insects that live on a small, eventful patch of earth. At first they wonder what it is; then, as the plant grows larger, they realise they can climb on it. But this is the wild world, after all, and something horrible is waiting to swoop down— booby voobeck!

Even the night-time creatures are fascinated by the plant, with a snail coming to investigate it and a melodious cricket serenading it from a nearby log. A tiny shoot unfolds and begins to grow, as ants, beetles and damselflies look on in wonder and imagine what it is, and all the while a caterpillar lies still in his cocoon, oblivious to the changes happening around him. With minimal text and crisp images, Ellis's book is deceptively simple, but don't be fooled; this whimsical story requires a close reading to truly absorb all its subtle delights.The performers (at this show Annie Brooks and Katherine Morton) wear matching dungarees and top-knots, engaging the kids whilst they settle with an easy and charming rapport. Using intricate illustrations supported by spare dialogue in an invented language, Ellis elegantly weaves the tale of several square feet of ground in the insect world as the seasons pass.