Lines

by Suzy Lee

Overview

It starts with a line. Whether made by the tip of a pencil or the blade of a skate, the magic starts there.

And magic once again flows from the pencil and imagination of internationally acclaimed artist Suzy Lee. With the lightest of touches, this masterwork blurs the lines between real and imagined, reminding us why Lee's books have been lauded around the world, recognized on New York Times Best Illustrated Books lists and nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international honor given to children's book creators. This seemingly simple story about a young skater on a frozen pond will charm the youngest of readers while simultaneously astounding book enthusiasts of any age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452156651
Publisher:	Chronicle Books LLC
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Suzy Lee lives in Seoul, South Korea, and is the author of award-winning children's books.

Editorial Reviews

…[a] transcendent wordless picture book…It's a magical, inventive journey through the artistic process. The mistakes, as well as the perseverance, needed to create are charmingly personified by the skater. Her motion and body language are captured with marvelous skill, each drawn mark alive with quiet energy—rendering words unnecessary. Lines truly underscores Lee's mastery of the wordless picture book form.

The New York Times Book Review - Grace Lin

★ 07/17/2017
As she did in Wave and Shadow, Lee explores the possibilities of the picture book as she draws a parallel between a solitary figure skater and the solitary artist who sketches her. The skater soars across the white pages, etching sinuous lines on the ice, a breathtaking vision of continuous motion. But then the skater leaps, spins, teeters off balance, and crashes hard; her red knit cap goes flying. A page turn translates the skater’s failure into the language of the artist: readers see a drawing crumpled in angry frustration, an eraser cast aside. Another page turn shows the skater’s slow recovery—and the artist’s—as the crumpled sheet of paper is spread out; on it, the skater sits gazing at her hat. A host of other skaters tumble about her, sprawling ungracefully, all with broad grins. Someone offers her a hand, and suddenly they’re all skating together. Skaters fail, artists make bad drawings—that’s how learning happens. And when a person is part of a community, it’s easier to keep one’s balance. For a story about making mistakes, Lee’s work is nearly flawless. Ages 3–5. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"A surprising meditation on the artistic process. Lee sticks the landing in style."-NPR Best Books of the Year

A Boston Globe Best Children's Book of the Year"

Readers are transported into a wintry wonderland of exuberant bliss."-Kirkus Reviews, starred review"

Lines has a lot to say about the artistic process and the sometimes fine line between the joy of expression and lonely pursuit of craft."-The Horn Book Magazine

"For a story about making mistakes, Lee's work is nearly flawless."-Publishers Weekly, starred review"

Blurs the lines between the real and the imagined."—Learning Magazine

"Any lover of picture books will appreciate this graceful wordless gem."-School Library Journal

"Another wordless wonder."-Booklist, starred review

From the Publisher

The half-shiny, half-textured book jacket with loopy lines immediately entices. What will the small, red-capped ice skater carve into the ice? But wait. The book’s overleaf shows a cleanly framed, two-page spread of just paper and a charcoal pencil plus an artist’s eraser off to one side. The story truly starts when the red-capped person skates one perfectly straight diagonal line across a whole page. Several loops, spins, twirls (and pages) later, the lines are bolder. They seem to elevate. Without words, only page turns can confirm the imagined plot. Ah! The skater is fine, cutting precise turns and bisecting the stormier lines in a taut arabesque, arms flung wide and punctuated with bold red mittens. In dizzying contrast, a tornado of circles fills the next spread. It’s a blurry, red, time-lapse display. Then the lines curve and spread again. More spins and leaps. More page turns. A quick page-turn and …where’s the skater? There’s only a pencil and crumbled paper. The eraser rests amid its own crumbs. Wait, now the skater is back! The hat has fallen, and the ice looks like paper. Or does it? Another skater literally skids into the scene. Others swoop in on backs, bottoms, and bellies. The iced pond fills with kids playing frosty games of all sorts. Their blades scratch lines everywhere, but they are bland as compared to the colorful, frisky skaters. Line up everyone! Let’s skate together. Readers will enjoy forming their very own interpretation of this wordless book. Reviewer: Katie Engen; Ages 3 to 6.

Children's Literature - Katie Engen

10/01/2017
PreS-Gr 3—An unseen artist sketches a deft ice skater making beautiful lines on the ice. Straight lines, squiggles, and curls, the combinations are endless. Then, suddenly, the ice skater falls, disrupting the fluidity and gracefulness of the story. The artist seems displeased with this development and starts anew on the following page. In this wordless picture book by Lee, readers can tell when the artist is changing the story line by the crinkled sketch paper and erasure mark illustrations. Through drawings alone, the message that everyone falls, but it is important to get back up and try again is delivered flawlessly. Supremely crisp, clean, and appealing, this is the kind of artwork that will entice readers to return to the pages again and again to see what detail they may have missed. The pages of the book are mostly a bright white, touched by the gray lines of the pencil drawings. The tiny splashes of color pop in the wintry hats and coats of the ice skaters as more figures emerge and the scene unfolds. Somehow, even with the cool white pages and cold, wintry landscape, this picture book for all ages will make readers feel warm inside. VERDICT Any lover of picture books will appreciate this graceful wordless gem. A great discussion starter and drawing prompt to see where a single line might lead.— Amy Shepherd, St. Anne's Episcopal School, Middleton, DE

School Library Journal

★ 2017-08-02
A lone skater, pale-skinned and dark-haired in a red knit cap and mittens, swoops across the white expanse of each double-page spread in this wordless picture book that celebrates companionship and play. At first reveling in solitary freedom, the figure flies across the ice, skates carving a symphony of lines in the surface with graceful spins, leaps, and turns. Eventually tumbling and crashing to the ground, the skater comes to a skidding halt. Next readers see a crumpled piece of paper, the little skater apparently no more than the figment of an artist's imagination. But wait! The wad of paper is flattened out, and there's the skater, alone and forlorn, on a smudged and wrinkled background, until another child comes along, then another and another. Soon the page is filled with joyful children of varying skin tones and hair colors—and even a bounding dog—skating and throwing snowballs on a pond surrounded by snow and trees. The deft pencil illustrations convey movement and emotion so effectively that words are superfluous. Readers are transported into a wintry wonderland of exuberant bliss in this picture book that speaks to those who like to explore the boundaries of creative expression. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews