Just Another Ordinary Day

Wow, what a clever approach to daily life! Even if this book supports itself mainly on the incredible illustrations, that is more than enough for a incredibly interesting day for the more normal among us. The plot is simple--we go through a young girl's day with her, from getting up in the morning until bedtime. However, she does not live in the average world. As the prior review suggests, the text has seemingly little to do with the illustrations; one could easily add completely different and infinitely more boring pictures to make it fit. But again, it's the illustrations that really get this story making it's magic. My class loved it as much as I did.

Author and illustrator Rod Clement has crafted a charming, clever tale depicting the ordinary day in the life of young Amanda, who has to "endure" her daily grind of getting ready for and going to school, coming home, reading with her cat, and so on. Or so the very understated text would have you believing. Mr. Clement pairs the seemingly mundane depiction of Amanda' routine with madcap illustrations that wildly play upon the notion of ordinariness. Her alarm clock is a fat, shirtless genie; she hitches a ride to school with her old neighbor (who happens to be a dinosaur); she bathes at the base of a waterfall with an elephant that happens to be the family's version of an SUV. The vivid illustrations not only run counter to the blasé tone of the text, they also have subtle sublayers that may not be obvious during the first pass. His attention to facial expressions is also worth noting. I liked how Mr. Clements allows generous amounts of white space to surround the illustrations, something that makes the book seem visually cooler and uncluttered despite the many details (in contrast to fellow Australian author and illustrator Graeme Base, who packs more details onto a page than almost anyone).

I read this book to a group of fifth graders and they loved it. The illustrations are a wonerful piece of imagination from a childs perspective.

Read this book to your children without letting them see the pictures. Then read it to them again, and this time let them see! The very ordinary 'left-brain' logical text is accompanied by wild and wonderful imaginative 'right-brain' illustrations. Great fun!