Kaleidoscope, a transcendent offering by Caldecott Medal winner Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret; Wonderstruck; The Marvels), is infused with different kinds of seemingly ordinary magics: time and space, friendship and love, science and fairy tale. Selznick's eighth work as an author and illustrator is formatted as a collection of 24 interconnected, nonlinear stories in which the whole vision is far greater than the sum of each of its gorgeous parts.
In the opening story, the first-person narrator turns 13 years old and makes off with a ship. They and their friend James sail "past the pillars of Hercules into the West Ocean." A fierce storm carries the pair to the moon, where they're enlisted to help the king in his battle against the sun. After "fighting among the stars for centuries," the narrator returns to Earth alone to find that only a few days have passed and they are being blamed for James's death. In the second story, the narrator is a giant who forms a friendship with the human boy James; though they don't speak the same language, the pair bond over books. And in the third, the narrator is a winged creature exiled to an island 300 years ago.
Certain themes and images reappear throughout: "gardens and butterflies, apples, angels, fires, trees, friendships, islands, keys, shipwrecks, grief, and love." The relationship between the narrator and James is at the heart of all, and the deeply connected pair love--and are in love--in various ways throughout. Selznick's signature meticulous and heavily cross-hatched pencil illustrations, both abstract and realistic, grace the beginning and end of each brief story. This lovely, ethereal work hopefully makes a case for what the King of the Moon wisely proclaims: "without dreams, everything dies." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author