Jorge Luján, illustrated by Piet Grobler,
Sky Blue Accident / Accidente Celeste
Groundwood Books, 2007.

Rating: E*

This book is described as "sweetly whimsical" and indeed it is but it won’t appeal to all readers young or old. Suspend all rationale thought before reading this book and dive into a fantasy story. The young boy in the story is riding a bicycle and, oddly enough, he "crashes" into the sky! The pieces of the sky fall out so the boy collects them. He offers the pieces of the sky to his teacher and remarkably (or perhaps favourably for the students) she sprouts wings and flies out the window. With no firm foundation, the clouds end up bumping into each other aimlessly. The world has a huge empty space because there is no sky. However, and children will certainly enjoy this part, the students paint the sky. They come to the rescue and put the universe in order. There is one piece missing but our hero, the boy from the beginning, provides bits of the real sky from all the pieces he collected.

This book is clever and fanciful and the illustrations really capture the whimsical nature of the story. Piet Gobler, the illustrator, is well known in South Africa for his artistic pieces that accompany over 60 books that he has illustrated. Both the short narrative and illustrations work together to create a story that is entertaining and imaginative.

Thematic Links: Fantasy; Nonsense Rhymes

Maria Forte
Vol. 12, number 5
June 2007

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.