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Tommaso and the Missing Line
ON THE DAY the strange thing happens—the day his line goes missing—Tommaso knows what he must find it. It’s the line on the drawing he puts in his pocket every day, the line he drew of the hill by his nonna’s house, and he knows he must find that very one.
Is that it there in the curl of the cat’s tail? No. Is it there in the antenna of the car? No, not it. It suddenly dawns on Tommaso whom to Nonna. Nonna will know.
In a spare story with a fable-like tone, Matteo Pericoli takes us through an Italian landscape in search of Tommaso’s line—and in doing so brings us along on a journey of discovery. Exquisitely detailed black-and-white art is punctuated by a bright ribbon of Tommaso’s missing line (or is it?).
Is that it there in the curl of the cat’s tail? No. Is it there in the antenna of the car? No, not it. It suddenly dawns on Tommaso whom to Nonna. Nonna will know.
In a spare story with a fable-like tone, Matteo Pericoli takes us through an Italian landscape in search of Tommaso’s line—and in doing so brings us along on a journey of discovery. Exquisitely detailed black-and-white art is punctuated by a bright ribbon of Tommaso’s missing line (or is it?).
40 pages, Hardcover
First published December 9, 2008
14 people want to read
About the author
Matteo Pericoli
28 books10 followersMatteo Pericoli is a Milan-born architect, illustrator, writer and teacher.
He is the author of several illustrated books — including Manhattan Unfurled, The City Out My Window: 63 Views on New York and Windows on the World: 50 Writers, 50 Views.
His drawings have appeared in various newspapers and magazines, both in the US and in Europe — including, among others, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Observer, The Paris Review Daily and La Stampa.
In 2007, his mural Skyline of the World was installed at the new American Airlines terminal at JFK International Airport.
In 2010 he founded the Laboratory of Literary Architecture, a cross-disciplinary exploration of literature as architecture.
He is the author of several illustrated books — including Manhattan Unfurled, The City Out My Window: 63 Views on New York and Windows on the World: 50 Writers, 50 Views.
His drawings have appeared in various newspapers and magazines, both in the US and in Europe — including, among others, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Observer, The Paris Review Daily and La Stampa.
In 2007, his mural Skyline of the World was installed at the new American Airlines terminal at JFK International Airport.
In 2010 he founded the Laboratory of Literary Architecture, a cross-disciplinary exploration of literature as architecture.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 16, 2010
Visually, this is a very nice book set in Italy. However, the storyline is a little too... I don't know. Abstract is not the right word. I'm a very literal thinker, and it's odd to me that this little boy could lose a line from his drawing. What do you think?
January 25, 2015
Could be a good mentor text for teaching dialogue.
September 4, 2008
One of my absolute favorites of the year.
December 4, 2019
A line has gone missing from Tommaso's picture of him and his grandmother at her house.
He searches all over for his missing line, finding lots of other lines in the process (love the way the illustrator uses orange for the line under consideration, when everything else is a black line on a plain white page).
But he has to go back to his nonna's house to find the original line.
He searches all over for his missing line, finding lots of other lines in the process (love the way the illustrator uses orange for the line under consideration, when everything else is a black line on a plain white page).
But he has to go back to his nonna's house to find the original line.
February 22, 2014
My children lkoved looking for the line on each page and enjoyed the story and pictures. Whilst the black text on an orange page isn't the easiest to read it made for a vibrant book, especially when contrasted with the beautifully and detailed line drawings in black and white on the opposite page with only a dash of orange for the possible line thrown in. They also loved comparing his original drawing with the actual view of his Nonna's place. The idea of the line dropping of to me seeemed a little odd but as we all know about kids imaginations they never questione dhow that happened.
May 24, 2016
As we were reading this book, there were a lot of perplexed faces in my class. They didn't quite know what to make of this missing line.
...I didn't have much to offer them either.
It is a charming story. We have a boy who is Italian and he was eager to tell us the Italian word for Grandma and of the people he knew with the same Italian names. Beautiful illustrations. Mysterious and well, vague!
They liked how the line goes through the entire story and he finds lines everywhere.
But somehow, we couldn't quite get why he had lost the line and how he thought he could get help finding it.
...I didn't have much to offer them either.
It is a charming story. We have a boy who is Italian and he was eager to tell us the Italian word for Grandma and of the people he knew with the same Italian names. Beautiful illustrations. Mysterious and well, vague!
They liked how the line goes through the entire story and he finds lines everywhere.
But somehow, we couldn't quite get why he had lost the line and how he thought he could get help finding it.
January 23, 2009
Rather heavy on text for a picture book and the small text on the solid orange background isn't easy on the eyes. The story is cute and the illustrations are wonderful, but I don't see using it in a story time. The library binding isn't very good.
February 9, 2009
From the author of Stellina, another well-done, artistic book--great for imagination themes. A just-right relationship between the boy and his grandmother (nonni). One page is orange with white text while the facing page features black and white drawings, with orange for Tommas' drawing and lines.
February 28, 2009
This makes me want to do another session of Illustrate! This is a fun story about a boy who has a line missing from a very important drawing. Very imaginative and great for a creative child. Ages 3+
March 3, 2009
The illustrations in this book are totally fab. Like Harold and the Purple Crayon collided with David Macaulay. Very nice picture book for visual kids.
April 13, 2009
WOW! is orange a hard color to read white text on! It's a beautiful story, but not ideal for storytime because of what it does to my eyes!
June 4, 2009
Okay, it's orange, so that worked in its favor...but it's also very imaginative, and I like the Italian flavor.
August 25, 2009
I was expecting this to be some sort of child accessible existential gem, but it never quite resonated anything for me.
December 10, 2009
"drawing, lines,"
April 17, 2010
A nicely designed book that even appealed to my 2.5 y.o. I love the pictures of Italy, and the focus on all the places you can find lines.
January 1, 2025
Very cute and a good book for a line unit in art class.
January 2, 2015
a very sweet book
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews