Review - La La La

La La La
by Kate DiCamillo
illustrated by Jaime Kim
Date: 2017
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 72
Format: hardcover
Source: library

This nearly wordless graphic story follows a little girl in search of a friend.

"La la la... la." A little girl stands alone and sings, but hears no response. Gathering her courage and her curiosity, she skips farther out into the world, singing away to the trees and the pond and the reeds -- but no song comes back to her. Day passes into night, and the girl dares to venture into the darkness toward the light of the moon, becoming more insistent in her singing, climbing as high as she can, but still there is silence in return. Dejected, she falls asleep on the ground, only to be awakened by an amazing sound.... She has been heard. At last.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

What a strange little book! At 72 pages, it's long for a picture book. Although, it has almost no text at all, so it'll fly by as fast as you can turn the pages.

I guess I was expecting more, given that the story was by Kate DiCamillo. The idea of a kid singing out into the darkness and not receiving a response is a little creepy. Where are all the other people? Where are her parents? Sure, she may be looking for a friend, but the lack of any other people at all kind of has me worried for the kid. Is she all alone?

The illustrations are what saved the book for me. The little girl herself is cute, but it's the backgrounds that are really lovely. The way Kim manages to give the pictures a glowing, ethereal quality with a limited colour palette is quite skillful. This is one book that you're probably going to want to savour, even if you're not all that enthralled by the story itself. I enjoyed looking at the pictures, even if I didn't quite "get" what the author and illustrator were going for as far as the story.

I'd probably recommend this one to fans of wordless picture books. I'm not sure if kids would like it, or if they'd be bored. It almost seems like one of those books that's going to appeal more to adults who can understand the deep message that the author and illustrator were trying to convey.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 4/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.33 out of 5