Author: Sam Zuppardi
Illustrator: Sam Zuppardi
Age Group: 1-8
Synopsis: When his little brothers annoy him, George enters another realm full of make-believe called Nowhere. He soon finds out the Nowhere can be very lovely if you don’t have anyone to share it with.
The Low Down:
I’m a sucker for illustrations. The more unique and wonderful the more I’m willing to overlook any story flaws. Lucky for me The Nowhere Box saves me from having to make any concessions.
The pictures look fairly basic at the beginning but as the story develops and George, the main character, commences his exploration of Nowhere the illustrations come to life. Sam Zuppardi uses corrugated cardboard and paint in the most unusual way and I love it. Of course telling someone that painted cardboard is interesting isn’t very convincing but I literally gasped when I turned the page and saw George’s ride through Nowhere on a cardboard roller coaster. The pictures are exiting and imaginative and they make me want to crawl into the pages and check out Nowhere for myself, as long as I can bring someone.
This is a great book for kids with siblings. The lesson is obvious and easy for kids to understand without dragging it out. George is annoyed by his little brothers and makes an escape pod in the form of the washing machine box. He then uses his imagination to create fantastical worlds that he can use to play out his own adventures. The only draw back is that there’s no dragons or enemy pirates. So George goes back and turns his little brothers into bad guys so he can battle them. A little one-sided but nobody seems to notice.
Bug loves the box and Nowhere the most. He flips directly to the front and follows the box throughout the story completely oblivious to the rest of the story. All he wants is “George’s box.” What is it with kids and boxes? I loved boxes when I was younger. I say that knowing full well I built a castle for Bug to crawl through out of boxes less than a month ago. And Bug was the only one crawling through it… I swear. There’s something about boxes that just begs to let our imagination run wild. Like a blank canvas that needs to be painted. The Nowhere Box embraces this and adds a moral in to boot. We originally got this at the library but I think we’ll need to add it to purchase it for our own collection. Imagination, boxes, fantastic illustrations, & learning to get along with younger children… what’s not to like?
Story Tips:
- We loved pushing the buttons to decide where we would go. I made the sounds and Bug turned the pages. Seconds later we were exploding around the room in rockets or rolling through the high seas (books are not just sit down experiences!).
- You can follow George’s box from delivery to abandonment and keep a close eye on George’s youngest brother on the very last page. He’s looking at the box very curiously.
I need more!
The Nowhere Box was Sam Zuppardi’s first book. He followed it with Jack’s Worry, with which I’m unfamiliar. He’s also illustrated Nobody’s Perfect by David Elliott.
