Robinson

by Peter Sís, Livia Signorini (Translator)

Dal buio della sua cameretta, il piccolo Peter intraprende un viaggio immaginario sulle orme di Robinson fino al paesaggio incantato di un’isola remota. Dove, come tanti bambini prima e dopo di lui, troverà il coraggio e la fiducia che servono ad a affrontare il mondo.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Friendship, Adventure, Pirates, Fiction, Fantasy

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

PETER SÍS is an internationally acclaimed illustrator, filmmaker, painter and author. Born in 1949 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and grew up in Prague. He studied painting and filmmaking at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London. His animated work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He came to America in 1982, and now lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his family. Peter Sís is the first children's book artist to be named a MacArthur Fellow. In 2012 he won The Hans Christian Andersen Award.

His many distinguished books include Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei, Tibet: Through the Red Box, Madlenka, Rainbow Rhino, The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, and The Conference of the Birds.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful! This is a beautiful book. It is more like a dream than a story. The art is amazing. It sweeps you up in the imagination.

A young boy dresses up as Robinson Crusoe for Halloween and then dreams of being the character. The story is simple.

The kids did enjoy this and they are now curious about Robinson Crusoe. Cool!

[Donalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork was stunning, but the story felt flat. I need to share it with some kids and get their opinion.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nate and I loved this book! 5 stars

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great adventure of a young boy, his friends, and his love for Robinson Crusoe.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't miss the author's note at the end, which gives a wonderful backstory on the genesis of this story.

[Vít Kotačka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Z knih Petera Síse mám vždycky rozpolcený pocit - nádherné, originální, konvencemi nespoutané celostránkové ilustrace a zároveň příběh, který mne míjí. A je to zvláštní, že mě míjí, protože co jsem zatím četl, jde vždy o dobrodružné záležitosti (kromě Robinsona třeba Komodo) a pokud vás vyprávění nestrhne, tak něco v konkrétní instanci vztahu čtenář-kniha nefunguje.

Na druhou stranu, to co by v podání jiného autora mohlo skončit sterotypem, dokáže Sís ozvláštnit nějakým nečekaným, často (pseudo)biografickým, aspektem. U Robinsona je to tak prolínající zážitek z dětského karnevalu (dodatečně vysvětlený v doslovu), či kamarádsvtí se zvířaty, které vyústí až v jakousi poslední večeři. A také závěrečné prolínání horečky a strachu z pirátů.

Ale ať už si o příběhu myslíte cokoli, stejně to nakonec přebijou ty úžasné ilustrace - kvůli nim stají za to Síse kupovat.

[Viera Némethová · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prekrásne ilustrovaná autorská kniha Petra Síse je príbehom chlapca, ktorý sa na chvíľku stal Robinsonom na maškarnom plese v škole. Mamina mu vyrobila kostým, za ktorý sa mu ale deti vysmiali. Chlapec sa cíti sám, akoby na ostrove. Nie je ale skľúčený, ani smutný. Samotu si užíva, vyrobí si prístrešok, na ostrove sú zvieratká, ktoré mu robia spoločnosť.

Tak ako chlapec vo svojej mysli s ľahkosťou vkĺzol na ostrov, na ktorom je sám, s rovnakou ľahkosťou spoznáva v pirátoch, ktorí prišli na ostrov svojich kamarátov, ktorých radostne prijíma a teší sa z ich prítomnosti.

Pre mňa je táto krásna kniha príbehom o ľudskej schopnosti byť rád sám so sebou, spoľahnúť sa na vlastné sily a schopnosti a naopak aj o túžbe byť s ľuďmi a medzi ľuďmi. Tešiť aj hnevať sa s nimi a na nich, byť súčasťou rodiny, spoločenstva.

Skvelý a krásne jednoduchý príbeh bez zbytočných, veľkých slov. Knihu som použila na biblioterapiu dospelých.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The school is having their costume party and Peter wants to be a pirate like all his friends. They always play pirate together so it seems fitting that they would be pirates together but mother suggests to Peter that he be Robinson Crusoe, the hero from his favorite story. Crusoe is also a great adventurer and braver than any pirate so he decides to be Crusoe and his mother makes him an awesome costume. When Peter arrives at school, Peter’s excitement falls out the window as his friends make fun of him. Peter dashes home and that night as he dreams, Peter discovers an island. Since he is the famous adventurer Crusoe, he makes himself right at home and he knows exactly what to do on this strange island. As the days past, he settles in but as he looks out over the water, he spies something in the water. It is pirates! They are making landfall on his island. He hopes they are friendly pirates. What will happen when they arrive?

I really liked the pictures in this children’s book. Colorful and artsy, they highlight the story. Little Peter looks small amongst the island vegetation and I loved the pictures as he makes friends with the animals on the island. Great book about friendship and being orginial. I really liked the text font in this novel too.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite from Peter Sis in a while... and I have almost literally read every one of his books. This one catches me because the art is just a little less tightly wound - we get more big fanciful watercolor landscapes and fewer relentlessly stippled or cross-hatched maps and tiny panels. And not that I dislike the maps and all the tiny panels... but this is more emotionally accessible. In a brief note in the back Peter says that he intentionally kept the art looser because the story is about a dream he had while sick in bed as a child.

Anyway, it's marvelous. And it even has a little callout to Where the Wild Things Are.

[Kifflie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was completely absorbed by Peter Sis's telling of this childhood story. Laughed at by his friends for his Robinson Crusoe costume, an upset Peter goes home and has a dream adventure in which he sails to an island and becomes the famous castaway. There is so much lush detail in this artwork, and you won't want to rush through it.

I also like the little homage to Where the Wild Things Are near the end.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel I have just participated in a small memory from the author illustrator's childhood. (f&G received at ALA17)

[Danielle]

I always enjoy a glimpse into Peter Sís's imagination and artistic style.

[Anmiryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet story, lovely to look at.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a school costume party is announced, a young boy (the narrator) and his friends decide to go as pirates, their favorite adventure game to play. But when the narrator’s mother suggests he go as Robinson Crusoe instead, he jumps at the chance. After all, Robinson Crusoe is his favorite book. She makes him a lovely costume, and together they go to school, but when the excited boy’s friends see him, they laugh and tease him. Crushed, he goes home with his mother, and straight to bed. Dreaming his bed is a small boat, he sails to a deserted island and decides to stay there. He makes a shelter, forages for food, makes his own clothes, and becomes friends with the animals. The island is his home, but he is always on the lookout for invading pirates. Yet, when they arrive, the boy is in for a big surprise. Sís has nicely blended a memory from his own childhood with the adventures of Robinson Crusoe to create a simple but effective story. If the story is simple, the illustrations are anything but. Detailed, multilayered, and textured, Sís has created a magical dreamlike landscape using watercolor and ink in a palette of aquamarines and bright blues. Themes of courage, loneliness, and friendship will lead to lots of thought provoking discussions.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mom was shelving books at the library I work when I saw this book. I simply asked, "Is that a picture book about the 18th century novel by Daniel Dafoe." She looked at it and said, "it certainly looks like it." And I immediately checked it out.

And it was almost exactly what I thought it was. It's about a young boy who wants to be a pirate but who instead comes to school dressed as Robinson Crusoe, one of his all-time favorite characters. And if a kid's book this sweet and beautiful can get kids interested in 18th-century literature, man I'm all for it.

[Rebecca Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures are gorgeous, but the story didn't quite work for me. Would have liked to see the boy solve his own problem.

[Jana Kovářová · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neuvěřitelně nádherné obrazy, ostatně jako ve všech knihách Petra Síse.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful fantasy illustrations of the dream island. I like that this fantastic tale was inspired by a true story from the author's childhood.

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children are jerks, but I enjoyed the art.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great illustrations, as expected. The very personal story is less appealing. The more one interprets it in a generic way, the more it becomes trite and loses its power.

[Briarwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it a lot because there was pirates. And he was in his underwear. That's funny. - R, age 3

I love it because he learned how to make his own stuff. - G, age 7

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun story about childhood imagination and dress up, based on the author's experience growing up. Connections to Robinson Crusoe (which my son loves). Great pictures!

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this picture book, the author blends a true story from his childhood with adventures from the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The Defoe book, though fiction, purports to be the autobiography of the title character, who is in a shipwreck and then spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island before he is rescued. During those years, he battles all sorts of dangers, and learns how to survive on his own.

Sís explains in an Author’s Note that Robinson Crusoe was one of his favorite books as a child. He even won a school costume contest dressed as Robinson Crusoe, but was disheartened when his friends made fun of him, even though they generally played pirate games.

And then he became sick. He reports:

“I was running a fever and stayed in bed for days. Did I really travel to Crusoe’s ‘Island of Despair’? Whatever happened in those lonely days of my shipwreck, it made me stronger. In my solitude, I became master of my own island. And I believed in myself again. So when my friends came to visit, I was able to forgive and forget and move on. They all wanted to hear stories of Robinson Crusoe. And we may have even read the book together.”

This book tells the story of the costume contest, his subsequent illness, and his fevered dreams of being marooned on an island. Very cleverly, his bed turns into a boat in stages, with the intermediate stage having an open book for masts.

The author, who is also the illustrator, manipulates his palette to change mood as well as setting. He even varies his artistic style from spread to spread, with many pages showing only a minimum of text, in marked contrast to his previous works. But each two-page spread is packed with meaning nevertheless, whether from lushly-colored landscapes or pastel floral fantasies.

Evaluation: Peter Sís is one of a small set of wonderful authors for children who can be appreciated on an entirely different level by adults, with neither audience feeling shortchanged. Children will spend hours pouring over the pictures, which may even inspire them to check out the story of Robinson Crusoe for themselves.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to hear Peter Sis share pages from this book and its inspiration from his own life at a recent literacy conference in Seattle, and his comments made me eager to read the entire book because of the personal connections he shared. The book is clearly a tribute to Robinson Crusoe, a book and a character that he loved as a child. When he and his friends planned to dress as pirates for a school costume party, his creative mother suggested that she whip up a costume that would make him look like his favorite protagonist. Although he wins a prize for the costume, his friends tease Peter, and he becomes so ill that he is bedridden for a short time. During his feverish dreams, he imagines that he has gone to the island where Crusoe once lived. There, he makes new friends and finds a way to survive. As the story closes, he is feeling better again, ready for the next adventure, and chooses to forgive his friends for teasing him. Rendered with pen, ink, and watercolors, the illustrations are sumptuous, detailed, and filled with greens and blues. Youngsters will feel as though they have been transported to Robinson's island along with the young Peter. I found the cover particularly fetching with its sail fashioned from a book's pages and open to a map of an island ready to be explored. The shifting from reality to fantasy and back again seems seamless to me.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

First sentence: My friends and I love adventure. We play pirates all the time. Together, we rule the high seas.

Premise/plot: Sis was inspired to write Robinson when he found an old photo of himself as a boy dressed up as Robinson Crusoe for his school's costume day. The story is told in the first person narrative. Readers meet a young boy who loves adventures, loves playing with his friends, loves dressing up as his favorite, favorite hero: Robinson Crusoe. What he doesn't love? Getting laughed at and teased by his classmates. Half the book takes place in the boy's imagination. He's sick in bed, but he's also traveling far, far away to an island and having incredible adventures. The book ends with a reconciliation between him and his friends.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this one. I love the story behind it. I loved seeing the actual photo. I loved hearing about his experiences. It does help, I think, to know he won the costume contest; he did feel awkward and uncomfortable to some extent; and he happened to be sick in bed with a fever right after. I love how the illustrations take us on journeys and adventures.

Text: 4 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 8 out of 10

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The young boy in this book loves the book Robinson Crusoe, so his mother makes him a Robinson costume for the school costume party. His friends are mad that he didn't dress as a pirate as they all planned, and everyone behaves badly. The story slides into a fevered dream reminiscent of Where the Wild Things Are and Robinson Crusoe, with sentient animals and larger-than-life plants and trees. In fact, Sís traveled to Martinique, the setting for Robinson Crusoe, to research the flora and fauna for this book. It is gorgeous, almost surreal in its fecundity. As in his other books, the illustrations are varied and detailed in presentation, with many imaginative details to ponder. I liked that the main character's band of friends is diverse, and their love of adventure is shown in the comical depictions of their escapades, such as all five kids on a super long scooter. Besides friendship, other themes are being sick and bullying. Includes an author's note in which Sís explains the inspiration for the story, and also a note about the art.

This would be a fun read aloud for ages 5-7, or an engrossing one on one share. Suggest this to the legions of Peter Sís fans as well.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on a childhood memory, young Peter dresses up as his favorite character Robinson Crusoe for a school costume party but his friends (all dressed as pirates) make fun of his costume and he can't stand staying at school. He runs home and falls into a feverish sleep in which he becomes Robinson Crusoe, makes a home on his island, and grows in self-confidence so when the pirates come he is ready to meet them. Even if they are pretend pirates, friends who need forgiving so that future adventures can be had.

I don't know whether to put this in fiction or nonfiction. It is largely autobiographical though the dream parts are fictional. Regardless, it will help younger readers get introduced to the basics of the Robinson Crusoe classic story and have a chance to talk about how to handle others who make fun of you. I really appreciate that in his own life when he faced teasing friends, Sís was able to forget and forgive and move on with the friendship. That is such a hard thing to do but a great example for kids. (Oh, and be sure to read the author's note so you get all this good background info.)

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I have to say that I went into this book with a little hesitation after reading some of the reviews.

The boy wanted to be a pirate for his class dress-up day and had agreed to do so with his friends. His mom talked him out of it and into something else, and set him up to get teased by his friends. Parents have well-meaning intentions that sometimes backfire.

The friends do tease him. Okay. Come on. We all know it. Kids aren’t always nice. Adults aren’t either. We can’t fault a story for dealing with real world issues. This gives us a chance to talk about it. “Were they being good friends if he really liked his idea?” Not every story has warm fuzzies.

He has a dream adventure and suddenly feels much better about his costume. It’s possible. Why not.

Overall, I liked the story. It’s not overly deep-which would have made the story longer. The illustrations are great. I would say to not throw the baby out with the bath water on this one. Just because he gets bullied and the mom has him change costumes is not a reason to not like the story.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Something about this really rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was the mom hijacking the boy's costume idea and subverting it and making it all about something else (and yes, I read the whole book and I read the afterward. I understand that this was about his favorite character and the power of individualism and friendship and all of that), but when he was mocked...my heart just HURT for him.
*sigh* I worry that I will do this, as a Mom with the best of intentions, and set my children up for hurt. Yikes.

Maybe it was the friends who were cruel and unkind? Though they did come around in the end.

Maybe it was the fever dream? Though it turned out all right in the end.

Maybe it is the character himself, Robinson Crusoe, whom I've never felt quite comfortable with.

Still can't figure it out; I only know that I don't like this book.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illustrated in pen, ink and watercolor.
Wonderful use of color and design to depict loneliness, sadness and then the escape of dreams. Completely drawn in by imaginative illustrations, main character's escape to the island, albeit a much more tame one than the original Robinson Crusoe. So many gorgeous details to absorb and experience.
I was reminded of Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, was entranced that the book was based on author/illustrator's own experiences.
Children will relate to feelings of embarrassment and humiliation at being laughed at by friends.
I appreciated the themes the sorrow and regret, as well as forgiveness and reconciliation. And, of course, choosing a costume based on a favorite book - bring on the literary love!