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João by a Thread
Author
Illustrator
Roger Mello
Publication Date
October 25, 2022
Genre / Grade Band
Fiction / 2nd − 3rd
Language
English
Format
Picture Book
Currently out of stock
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Description
An intricate and exquisite tale of how bedtime fears can be transformed into wondrous dreams and magical adventures, by Hans Christian Andersen award-winning Roger Mello.
As João tucks under a lovingly woven quilt, he asks himself: So it's just me now? He curls up, getting cozy in bed, and soon the world of his dreams unspools on the page. The blanket in his bed unravels into deep rivers, lakes, valleys, reservoirs, mountain ranges, fishing nets full of tadpoles and gaping holes, until what's left is just one long thread. When he feels alone and scared in the dark, João "sews words like patchwork" into a new blanket to cover himself up. He weaves the threads of his quilt until they form one long sentence, and soon, the nighttime is peppered with his own silvery, slippery words.
Roger Mello draws like a shapeshifter - to look at his illustrations is always to see something you missed before (a stingray, a crescent moon nestled into the palm of João's hand). His breathtaking line drawings, beaming in white thread against deep red, combined with poetic and bewildered language, make João by a Thread a book to take into bed at the edge of sleep, just before you start to dream.
Publication date
October 25, 2022
Genre
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781953861344
Publisher
Elsewhere Editions
BISAC categories
JUV051000 - Juvenile Fiction | Imagination & Play
JUV001000 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure
JUV010000 - Juvenile Fiction | Bedtime & Dreams
JUV001000 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure
JUV010000 - Juvenile Fiction | Bedtime & Dreams
Library of Congress categories
Bedtime
Blankets
Illustrated works
Blankets
Illustrated works
Kirkus
Starred Review
Evocative in its execution, this Brazilian import invites readers to ponder the scenarios it casts (and those it doesn't). A moody, ingenious masterstroke.
Publishers Weekly
"How big is the blanket that's covering João?/ As big as the bed?/ Or as big as the nighttime?" Taking a patterned blanket as focal point, Mello narrates a child's nighttime experience in this entrancing, question-filled book, which gestures toward the way connection (to family, to nature) can be felt, even when one is "alone with myself." Natural imagery--wind, mountains, rivers--describe João's restless moments beneath the blanket, the fear that engulfs him and unravels the textile, and the lullaby (a "word-blanket" he sews) with which he soothes himself. Philosophical text unfolds against cherry-red pages starkly accented with black and white, while the coverlet's spidery weave fills almost every spread, its design shifting as João--presented as a long-limbed featureless form--ventures through the night until resting beneath a blanket of his own redesign in this dreamlike volume. Ages 5-8. (Oct.)
Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission. Roger Mello
About the author / illustrator: Roger Mello has illustrated over 100 titles - 22 of which he also wrote - and his unique style and adroit sense of color continues to push the boundaries of children's book illustration. Rather than relying on written narrative to tell the story, Mello invites his young readers to fill the gaps with imagination. Mello has won numerous awards for writing and illustrating, including three of IBBY's Luis Jardim Awards, the Best Children's Book 2002 International Award, and the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award. In 2018, You Can't Be Too Careful! was named a Batchelder Honor Book by the American Library Association. Charcoal Boys was published by Elsewhere Editions in 2019 and was named a USBBY 2020 Outstanding International Book. About the translator: Daniel Hahn is the author of a number of works of nonfiction, including The Tower Menagerie. He is one of the editors of The Ultimate Book Guide, a series of reading guides for children and teenagers. His translation of The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007 and his translation of Agualusa's A General Theory of Oblivion was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 and in 2019, we published his translation of Agualusa's The Society of Reluctant Dreamers. He has translated the work of Philippe Claudel, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, and others. He has collaborated with Roger Mello on two powerfully poetic picture books: You Can't Be Too Careful! and Charcoal Boys.
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