Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

It’s later than I planned, because my hubby and I started a puzzle together, but I wanted to review Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse so that it can go back to the library tomorrow. (I have a curbside pickup scheduled, so I’ll be there, and there were 90-odd holds on this one last I checked, so it seems the courteous thing to do.) It’s an incredibly quick read–much more art than text–and a beautiful one; it also went over well with my two older girls, which I didn’t quite expect. It’s almost more a collection of pithy insights into life than a book, and the art is all over the spectrum–some of it is barely sketched while other pages look finished, if you know what I mean. I thought it was a beautiful book, but I also weighed the words more than the illustrations, because I always focus on words (if there are any). The art does have a surprisingly compelling quality, however, given the the nature of it. To be truly accurate, the book itself is art–the text and illustrations together create a work of art that is more than the sum of its parts. Pick this one up from your local bookstore and give it a read; when you’re done, decide whether you want to keep it or give it away, and act accordingly. Either way, it will be worth it.