Tom Clohosy Cole studied at Kingston University and is the author-illustrator of Space Race. He lives and works in London.
Out of this wrenching scenario Cole has fashioned a tight little
narrative that has all the ambient foreboding of a fairy tale, the
sense of children at the mercy of enormous, irrational,
half-understood forces.
—New York Times Book Review
British illustrator Cole's life-affirming debut for children marks
the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. ... Striking,
expressionist graphics and a plainspoken, minimalist text
distinguish this standout.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Cole successfully uses his broad strokes of bold color to define
the differences between the east and west sides of the wall. ...
Published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the tearing down
of the wall, this story appeals to children’s natural instinct for
fairness and justice. ... However used, this powerful story of
family, torn apart and reunited, allows children access to an
important historical event by combining strikingly bold
illustrations with a carefully worded text that engages and
informs.
—School Library Journal
Cole’s dramatic digital illustrations fill the spreads with
saturated color, dynamic composition, and atmospheric lighting,
conveying the narrative’s powerful intensity. Though no direct
mention is made of the Berlin Wall, or the complicated politics
surrounding it, this emotional story, published on the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the wall’s dismantling, invites further
investigation and reflection, and it may be best appreciated by
older children who will want to discuss the story’s challenging,
powerful imagery.
—Booklist
Cole’s silk screen–like digital artwork conveys this reality with
unusual thoughtfulness and complexity. The images focus on the
cheerless Iron Curtain landscape, gloomy expanses punctuated by
intrusive beams of light, and each contains a moment of contrast or
surprise. ... Doll-like figures temper the story’s more difficult
episodes, yet Cole never hides the terror and injustice of life
under totalitarian government.
—Publishers Weekly
Published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the fall of the
Berlin Wall, this striking and graphically dramatic picture book
makes accessible to young children the concept behind the fortified
barrier that divided the city for nearly three decades. And through
the young boy who narrates, 5- to 9-year-olds may begin to grasp
the human cost.
—Wall Street Journal
Capturing perfectly the period after the Berlin Wall rose, the
book’s dark, emotional digital illustrations put readers in the
narrator’s shoes. ... The author makes the fear and paranoia of
those times palpable here, insuring the book’s usefulness for a
social studies class and a discussion of WWII’s aftermath. Readers
will find themselves imagining how it must have felt to be
separated from loved ones by a wall and what it would have been
like to have to stand guard to prevent individuals from fleeing
from East Berlin to West Berlin.
—Reading Today Online
Artwork dominates the simple plot, with the nightmare- inducing,
razor wire–topped wall looming over the boy’s town, and
perspectives are oriented so that viewers share the sightlines of
rifle-wielding soldiers.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
This commemorative book sheds light on a dark chapter of history
when concrete, barbed wire and soldiers divide a city and the
world. ... Digital art, deeply shadowed and pierced by spotlights,
dramatizes the high stakes and the happy ending.
—San Francisco Chronicle
A hardcover stunner for young readers... Timed to the 25th
anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, this book invites
parents to teach their kids about a difficult chapter in recent
history without inducing any nightmares.
—Chicago Tribune
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