Whimsy's Heavy Things

by Julie Kraulis, Julie Kraulis (Illustrator)

Overview

Whimsy's heavy things are weighing her down. She tries to sweep them under the rug, but she trips over them. She tries to put them in a tree, but they fall on her. She even tries to sail them out to sea, but they always come back. Eventually Whimsy decides to deal with the heavy things one at a time... and a surprising thing happens. With exquisite illustrations and delightfully simple text, Whimsy's Heavy Things is a sweet story about changing the things that weigh us down into the things that lift us up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770494046
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	09/24/2013
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 6 Years

About the Author

Toronto-based artist and illustrator Julie Kraulis is passionate about ideas: the unexpected, profound, whimsical, smart. Since completing her Bachelor of Design in Illustration at the Ontario College of Art & Design, Julie has created images that form a diverse body of work ranging from fine art, to illustration, to design. Her creative journey is one of hope and disbelief, soaring and stumbling. All that she encounters in this wide world becomes her inspiration and she delights in sharing these treasures with others. She is a "stop and smell the roses" kind of gal who loves to create. Visit her online at juliekraulis.com. The author lives in Toronto, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

08/12/2013
The story in Kraulis’s debut takes a backseat to her moody, stylish artwork. The heroine, Whimsy, is a blonde, marionettelike figure with heavy-lidded eyes and pursed red lips, and she’s saddled with a collection of objects that look like cannonballs. They’re the “heavy things” of the title, a metaphor for the troubles that plague her. Kraulis draws trees, fields, and water for Whimsy to swim in, but there’s no place to get rid of the heavy things. Whimsy attaches them to a kite, but they won’t fly away, and they sink when she tries to “float them to sea.” When she discovers that she can address her heavy things one at a time and break them into small pieces—a symbol, presumably, for breaking problems down and realizing that they’re not monolithic—things improve. “Whimsy... planted the pieces in the garden where they grew into a beautiful peach tree.” The most striking spreads show Whimsy underwater, the surface refracting glittering light above her. Despite the book’s practical and encouraging advice, though, it’s the gloomy moments that linger. Ages 4–6. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

LONGLIST 2014 CBA Libris Awards Children’s Picture book of the Year

"[Whimsy's] ... solutions are ingenious, and the ending surprises with a mature little twist that is reassuring as well as realistic. Every page is sweetly rendered by author and illustrator Julie Kraulis's oil and graphite artwork, which evokes a softer, gentler version of Tim Burton's style.”
—Quill & Quire

From the Publisher

12/01/2013
PreS-Gr 2—With a spare narrative and beautiful illustrations, this picture book tackles the subject of what to do when things seem bleak. Whimsy, a child in a mustard-and-white-striped dress and red boots, finds herself weighed down. Her "heavy things," which are rendered as black balls that look a bit like yarn, will not go away. She tries to hide them under a rug, but soon trips over them. She hoists them onto a tree, but the branch breaks. After more trial and error, and tears, "she just couldn't make the heavy things disappear." Eventually, though, Whimsy finds a solution: "she could break the heavy things into smaller pieces," and, when she does, she discovers that "heavy things are just light things in disguise." The oils and graphite spreads gently convey the bleakness the narrator feels and subtly shift in color as Whimsy becomes free of her burdens. While the message might be lost on many young readers, adults will find this title helpful for initiating discussion with anxious or sad youngsters, or to help children understand sadness.—Brooke Rasche, La Crosse Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

2013-08-15
A worthy idea is lost in this ungentle metaphor for dealing with big problems in everyday life. Poor Whimsy. She's incapable of happiness thanks to the presence of four heavy, round "things" she must carry around with her (they look rather like bowling balls, but they are not attached to her in any visible way). She attempts to do away with her problems in a variety of unsuccessful sequences. After much deliberation, Whimsy changes tactics and breaks them apart, turning each heavy thing into something useful or beautiful: marbles, peach pits, etc. The story has good-enough bones, yet the writing is not up to the plot. Too on-the-nose to be an allegory and too didactic to pull off its message, this heavy-handed tale is helped not one jot by Kraulis' oil-and-graphite images. Resembling nothing so much as a short 45-year-old in both her appearance and problems, Whimsy comes off as a poorly rendered escapee from an Etsy store rather than a living breathing character. Additionally, the muted palette of greens and blues, with the occasional yellow and red, shows little modulation after Whimsy's transformation, keeping the emotional tone flat. The message--tackle your problems by breaking them into smaller pieces--may be a worthy one, but breaking down this book only yields more and more problems for author and readers alike. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews