Illustration Style: Mixed media

"I happen to consider this latest book Santat’s best work visually. When critiquing a picture book for its art, you go about it two ways: First you consider the images in the book individually and then you consider how well they work together as a whole. I can’t do that with you here. Not thoroughly. Instead, let’s just take a single example of a moment in the book. In this story Humpty has at last constructed the perfect bird-shaped paper airplane as a kind of avatar, going where he cannot. Now consider the three page turns that go from a two-page close-up on Humpty’s horrified visage as he watches his beloved paper bird soar to the precise location he’s been trying to avoid. A turn of the page and we get this rather remarkable shot of Humpty’s head sticking out in the middle of the left-hand page while the wall, ladder, and bird are equally sideways, born out of the right-hand side of the right page. Another page turn and the angle has shifted yet again. We’re at the top of the ladder on the wall looking down at a thoroughly pissed off Humpty. Look at where the white pace moves in these three sequences. Upper half of the page – left-hand side – lower half (where the wall is). This is just one example but as I read the book through a couple times I noticed these very thoughtful choices on the part of the artist.” —Elizabeth Bird, SLJ