Anthony Browne - Voices in the Park

Anthony Browne has written and illustrated a masterpiece. This book, unlike most children's books which get very dull for the adults doing the reading after just a few reads, gets better and better with each reading. The characters are surprisingly deep for a kid's book of only 32 pages. An observant viewer of the illustrations will find new and hidden pictures within the pictures the more they look at them.

The main theme of the story is attitude. It is fun to see how the various attitudes can positively or negatively affect the happiness of the individuals expressing them as well as rub off on those around them. Readers will come out of each reading with a new resolve to be more uplifting to those they associate with for the benefit of everyone. The message is powerful and cleverly presented.

My three year old and I haven't found an Anthony Browne book we didn't like but Voices in the Park is my favorite. When we read one of Browne's books my son gets the others out and insists that we read them all. He finds the illustrations in Through the Magic Mirror to be very intriguing. Another we enjoy is Willy the Dreamer. All have sort of a Twilight Zone meets Salvador Dali meets M.C. Escher bizarre feel to them.

Kids will love and learn from Voices in the Park--but maybe not as much as the parents.

From the publisher:
Four people enter a park, and through their eyes we see four different visions. There's the bossy woman, the sad man, the lonely boy, and the young girl whose warmth touches those she meets. As the story moves from one voice to another, their perspectives are reflected in the shifting landscapes and seasons. Anthony Browne's rich, subtle art and his gentle text create an intriguing, many-layered, enormously entertaining book that demands to be read again and again.