Paradise Sands: A Story of Enchantment

by Levi Pinfold, Levi Pinfold (Illustrator)

Overview

A captivating tale of eerie places and mystical bargains, sumptuously illustrated by Kate Greenaway Medalist Levi Pinfold

Washed clean in his pool, we fall under his rule . . .
Away from what is, we all are now his.

When a young girl and her older brothers step into the ghostly Paradise Sands hotel, they fall under the rule of the mysterious Teller. The girl makes a deal with the commanding creature to free them all from his haunting paradise—and let them return to their mother, white roses in hand. But can the girl, determined as she is, hold up her side of the bargain? A contemporary story with the feel of a classic fairy tale, Levi Pinfold’s Paradise Sands is lush with enchanting illustrations, rendered in a muted palette with the artist’s distinctive stylistic realism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536212822
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	11.38(w) x 9.56(h) x 0.42(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Levi Pinfold is the creator of the picture books The Django, Greenling, and Black Dog, a Kate Greenaway Medal winner. He is also the illustrator of The Dam by David Almond. Levi Pinfold lives in Australia.

Editorial Reviews

Startling and memorable. . . glorious ambiguity invites repeat reads. . . . It is a rare picture book that works best with older readers—this is a stellar example.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

A story that demands that its readers return to each page. . . This mesmerizing work offers potential jumping-off points to discuss many topics, including magical realism, symbolism, family relationships and roles, and mental health.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Surreal. . . Themes of determination, family traditions, and love are manifested in the words and images. The washout-desert palette in the hauntingly beautiful realistic mixed-media illustrations creates an eerie sense of foreboding (carried through to the ambiguous ending) that cues readers into the otherworldliness of the story. . . . Masterful use of light, spot color, and scale mark this as a significant piece of bookmaking.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

A visually gripping, cyclical tale of sacrifice and determination. . . . Pragmatic text sits in somber contrast to Pinfold's lushly detailed and unsettling mixed-media artwork. The meticulous nature of the art lures the reader's eye to the tiniest illustrative details. . . . Pinfold (The Song from Somewhere Else) blends underworld mythology with fairy-tale sensibility to haunting effect.
—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

Haunting and surreal. . . Photorealistic and dazzling, the illustrations capture the fine details of spaces both real and imagined in precise, lasting terms.
—Foreword Reviews (starred review)

Chilly, precision-drafted spreads with dazzling architectural motifs confer gravitas on this haunting fairy tale centering a steely character who remains resolute in the face of trickery.
—Publishers Weekly

Pinfold lures readers into a story aswirl with mystery, dust, and darkness. . . Snippets of an eerie rhyme and the presence of a talking lion bestow a folkloric quality to the story, which also calls to mind Chris Van Allsburg’s Jumanji. . . a haunting journey that readers won’t easily shake.
—Booklist

The whole story has the haunting, ominous feel of an old, dark fairy tale. . . atmospheric.
—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

12/01/2022

Gr 4–6—The story begins with a six-line poem under a small, rectangular image of a tough, leafless tree with white blossoms. The slightly overexposed, photorealistic style continues throughout, as a girl and her three older brothers drive through a desert landscape. The four leave the car to pick flowers for their mother, but the boys run off, reciting lines from the poem, leaving the girl to follow them into a silent, massive building, where they unwisely drink, eat, and are therefore trapped. The girl, cleverly, does not eat or drink, and makes a deal with a huge lion called the Teller to get her brothers back. She keeps her bargain, and the four reach their mother, who seems to be staying in a medical facility (bed with wheels, no decorations); from the girl, the mother intuits what happened on their trip. The whole story has the haunting, ominous feel of an old, dark fairy tale; in the illustrations, which have a bleached quality, the human characters are often dwarfed by the landscape, buildings, or animals. VERDICT This spare, atmospheric book may require some book-talking to find an audience, although it could be used in a unit on fairy tales and legends.—Jenny Arch

School Library Journal

★ 2022-07-13
On a car trip to visit their mother, three brothers and a sister are lured into a mysterious palace.

The initial, stark white page includes a small illustration of a wizened tree with white blossoms. An ominous, prophetic rhyme warns of Teller’s Hollow (“A sip from the chalice, we enter his palace / Break bread for the Keeper, now we descend deeper…”). Three ensuing pages of wordless, hyper-realistic, full-page illustrations rely on a palette of Dust Bowl colors, showing, first, a slight young girl exiting a dreary stucco house and entering an equally dreary, occupied whitish car; the car then winds its way through a desolate desert. As the car pulls over, the brothers spot flowers and pick some for their mother. When they come upon a fantastical palace, the brothers, hungry and thirsty, eat and drink the food they find; the girl alone resists temptations in this odd realm ruled by a lion called the Teller and populated by dozens of other animals. At last, the girl safely shepherds her brothers to the stark institution housing their mother; more mysteries arise. This is a strange tale, laden with ambiguities. However, herein lies the appeal; succinct, carefully chosen text and hauntingly beautiful artwork create a story that demands that its readers return to each page, trying to figure out answers to questions whose answers exist only in readers’ imaginations. This mesmerizing work offers potential jumping-off points to discuss many topics, including magical realism, symbolism, family relationships and roles, and mental health. Characters are light-skinned and dark-haired. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Drink from this chalice. (Picture book. 7-12)

Kirkus Reviews