Along a Long Road

by Frank Viva (Artist)

Overview

Follow that road!

Speed off on an eventful bicycle ride along the bold yellow road that cuts through town, by the sea, and through the country. Ride up and around, along and through, out and down.

Frank's striking graphic style is executed in just five joyous colors, and his spare, rhythmic language is infectious.

Hit a bump?
Get back on track!
Reach the end?
Start again!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316235686
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	06/04/2013
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Frank Viva is an award-winning illustrator and designer living and working in Toronto. His beautiful books include Along a Long Road and A Long Way Away. His art has appeared in many wonderful places, including the cover of the New Yorker. He is outstanding in his field, especially on the farm.

Editorial Reviews

A note explains that newcomer Viva created the art for this celebration of cycling "as a single, continuous thirty-five-foot-long piece of art." The uniting element is a golden, glossy ribbon of road that winds, unbroken (but for a tunnel), through the matte pages of the entire book, even onto the endpapers and covers. Suggestive of linocut prints, Viva's artwork combines supple curves, big areas of soft black background, light blue for water and shading, and the occasional brick-red accent; it's simultaneously stylish and restrained. Simple, lilting text reproduces the smooth, rhythmic pace of cycling and the meditative state of mind it induces. "Along a long road," Viva starts, showing the cyclist in a grove of birches, "going up," he continues, as the cyclist climbs an incline, passing a snail. "Around a small town and down," he continues, as the road snakes past a football field, a bird flies overhead, and a figure on a tractor waves in the distance. It's the kind of book that creates a mood rather than telling a story, evoking the freedom of traveling, the joy of movement, and the exhilaration of being outside. Ages 3–6. (June)

Publishers Weekly

*"This outstanding visual treat about the open road will inspire readers, whether on three wheels or two, to pedal faster and farther."—School Library Journal (starred review)

"Eccentric and peculiar, but handsome, too."—Booklist

"Great fun to look at; kids will feel the speed of the bike and the there-ness of place."—Kirkus Reviews

"It's the kind of book that creates a mood rather than telling a story, evoking the freedom of traveling, the joy of movement, and the exhilaration of being outside."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

PreS-K—The old adage that the journey is more important than the destination is whimsically demonstrated in this picture book. The illustrations were created as a continuous 35-foot-long piece of art using Adobe Illustrator, a fun fact tucked away in the front matter. Kids won't be able to resist tracing a finger along the featured bicyclist's route, shown in relief with glossy ink and running page to page and onto the covers without interruption. The bike rider winds his way through the countryside and the city, all created in a style reminiscent of 1950s-era graphic art. Readers may want to put on the brakes for just a moment to enjoy searching out smaller details, such as a whale's tail and a minuscule passenger on a Ferris wheel. The sophisticated palette—black, cream, rust red, slate blue, and burnished gold-is unusual in children's books and is another feature that makes this title a stand-out. The text is minimal, subtly reinforcing the action. This outstanding visual treat about the open road will inspire readers, whether on three wheels or two, to pedal faster and farther.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR

School Library Journal

What was one continuous 35-foot long work of art turns into a nifty visual exercise and an engaging image for young folk.

There are only four colors—black, white, blue and rust—except for that long, long road, which is a shiny ocher. The text is equally minimalist, with only a handful of words per page. The cycling hero curls over his racing bike, now like a crochet hook, now like the capital letter L, now like the letter U, sideways. He races around the town, through a tunnel, over a bridge, hitting a bump, stopping, riding again. That shiny road widens and narrows but never ceases, and readers will gaze wide-eyed at what is along the way: a boy getting ice cream from a truck; a pregnant woman, with boy and dog in tow, buying groceries and waving; the circus tent outside of town and the lighthouse at water's edge. Viva, an international cyclist and designer ofNew Yorkercovers, among many other things, has a pleasing graphic style that indicates shape and movement with geometric form and line.

Great fun to look at; kids will feel the speed of the bike and the there-ness of place.(Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews