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The Rock from the Sky
Look up! From the Caldecott Medal-winning creator of the Hat Trilogy comes a new deadpan gem.
Turtle really likes standing in his favorite spot. He likes it so much that he asks his friend Armadillo to come over and stand in it, too. But now that Armadillo is standing in that spot, he has a bad feeling about it . . .
Here comes The Rock from the Sky, a hilarious meditation on the workings of friendship, fate, shared futuristic visions, and that funny feeling you get that there's something off somewhere, but you just can't put your finger on it. Merging broad visual suspense with wry wit, celebrated picture book creator Jon Klassen gives us a wholly original comedy for the ages.
Turtle really likes standing in his favorite spot. He likes it so much that he asks his friend Armadillo to come over and stand in it, too. But now that Armadillo is standing in that spot, he has a bad feeling about it . . .
Here comes The Rock from the Sky, a hilarious meditation on the workings of friendship, fate, shared futuristic visions, and that funny feeling you get that there's something off somewhere, but you just can't put your finger on it. Merging broad visual suspense with wry wit, celebrated picture book creator Jon Klassen gives us a wholly original comedy for the ages.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published April 13, 2021
38 people are currently reading
1900 people want to read
About the author
Jon Klassen
69 books1,825 followersJon Klassen received the 2010 Canadian Governor General’s Award for his illustrations in Caroline Stutson’s Cat's Night Out. He also created illustrations for the popular series The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place and served as an illustrator on the animated feature film Coraline (2009). I Want My Hat Back is the first book he has both written and illustrated. Originally from Niagara Falls, Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 717 reviews
January 8, 2021
I do not think I would want to be Jon Klassen. Not because he isn’t a nice guy or anything. He’s nice as they come. But when he broke, he broke hard. I Want My Hat Back was a sensation above and beyond the predictable. One minute it’s just a cute book about a bear and his missing hat, and the next you’re seeing Dr. Who memes referencing it on Buzzfeed. Klassen’s style also became replicated far and wide. I well remember an illustrator of my acquaintance grumbling that everyone was trying to make their books look like Jon Klassen now. Klassen wrote three picture books about animals and their hats and has since spent the rest of his time illustrating books by a variety of cool authors. So I think it would be hard to be Mr. Klassen. If you're him people probably think they know what you’re going to do next. Perhaps that’s why I was so excited to see his art for Amy Timberlake’s Skunk and Badger, which (amongst other things) showed animals SMILING for crying out loud. In light of that sea change, The Rock From the Sky might feel like a step back into familiar territory. Here we have animals and hats and mysterious goings on. But read it cover to cover and you’re just swept up in a book that cultivates a singular sense of comic timing and tone policing that never falters or strays. It is, in fact, his best book to date. Period.
Five chapters illustrate the small adventures of three behatted creatures: A turtle, an armadillo, and a silent snake. In the first story, the turtle is very fond of a spot, but the armadillo has a bad feeling about it. In the second story, turtle has fallen but refuses to concede that it may need help. In the third story, the armadillo and turtle imagine what the future might be like, but this goes in an unexpected direction. In the fourth, the armadillo and snake are enjoying the sunset . . . until they aren’t. Finally, in the last story, turtle is peeved that there’s no space to sleep beside the rock and decides to make its friends feel bad about that fact. On their surface, they don’t sound like much. Taken together, they’re sublime.
Every Jon Klassen book is a play. Or, more precisely, a play on plays. The mistake comes in trying to identify what kinds of stage productions they are, which is precisely what I’m going to do here. I Want My Hat Back? A school play, with characters breaking the fourth wall in precisely the same way a child would break the fourth wall if they saw their parents sitting in the darkened audience, watching. This Is Not My Hat? Shadow puppet theater. We Found a Hat? Not sure. A movie musical with a balletic dream sequence? I’m still deciding. But The Rock From the Sky? Pure Ionesco mixed with Beckett (I was half waiting for the words “they do not move” to show up at some point), only it makes sense and has time travel and aliens stomping around. Some day, mark my words, a director will take each one of these books that Klassen has both authored and illustrated, and either turn them into a series of animated short films utilizing a wide variety of styles and tones, or a stage a play that encompasses all these different styles as different scenes. And why not? If picture books have been breaking down the fourth wall for years, why not break out the experimental theatrical performances?
But see, that’s the thing about Klassen and the fourth wall. It’s commonplace for book characters to talk to their child readers these days. Thanks to Grover, The Pigeon, Press Here, and more, children are told precisely what to do with each one of those books. Touch this! Press that! Klassen never tells you what to do. He never tells you what to think. His characters look right at you but you’re not being encouraged to react directly to them. Instead, those eyes are encouraging you to do the exact opposite: to watch them react as a series of ridiculous events are (or are not) thrust upon them. Even when you know that tragedy is imminent, you don’t feel inclined to call out and warn anyone. Does anyone warn the coyote when his plan to catch the roadrunner is about to result in a bad physical end? So you read this book luxuriating in how it puts you, the reader, into this place of uncertainty. Something terrible could happen at any moment. Isn’t it delicious?
Which brings us to the meticulous utilization of dread in children’s literature. Or, since this is kids we’re talking about, anticipation. Anyone who has ever read the book Fortunately by Remy Charlip to a large group of children knows perfectly well that half the fun of that book is the possibility that you are about to see your hero impaled on a pitchfork or torn to shreds by sharks or flattened by a fall. Klassen is working off of much the same feeling. In the first story you know that a rock is falling. It’s in the title. You really can’t get any clearer than that. So the question is less IF the rock is going to hit than WHEN it’s going to hit. Or, for that matter, who. And by some miracle, if a rock falls it feels surprising. And you laugh both out of relief (on behalf of the characters) and when you see their expressions. Such as they are.
In a little press packet that came with my copy of this book (which stole the phrase “deadpan gem” away from me, so that I cannot use it in this review, curse the marketing team's eloquent hide) Klassen talks a little about why he gave his animals hats (“The characters wear little bowler hats (though the snake has a beret for reasons I’ve not explained to myself)”) and how he has spent some time giving them a nice big sky. What he doesn’t talk about is the facial expressions. I don’t think you’d go out of your way to say that Klassen was the most emotive illustrator out there. You’re not going to get some Chuck Jones-esque on-camera mugging from these characters. In a way, Klassen is the Buster Keaton of the picture book world. But that said, I found these to be MUCH more expressive figures than Klassen had ever tried before. How so? Their eyes. With just the deftest touch, Klassen will widen or narrow the eyes on his characters and the gesture will tell whole novels. I’m thinking of anytime a rock falls or, my personal favorite, when the turtle refuses help in turning over and says to the sleeping armadillo “I am never tired.” Its expression, as it glares into the distance with equal parts stubbornness and determination, is worth the price of the book alone.
It is also, as it just so happens, a book that may be impossible to encapsulate well in a review. Let me put it this way then: Would you like to read a book that will make you laugh and your kids laugh, and all of you are laughing for real, no one faking it, and enjoying this book for the exact same reasons? Because what we have here is a bit of a unicorn. It’s a book that is amusing to children and adults in precisely the same way. It straddles ages and even, I’d suggest, different kinds of senses of humor. Add in the fact that it’s beautiful to look at (yes, kudos on those skies, Jon), a tiny bit poignant, and contains funny hats and I’d say it’s a winner to its core. The kind of book that comes out of the blue and just hits you with its charm.
For ages 4 and up.
Five chapters illustrate the small adventures of three behatted creatures: A turtle, an armadillo, and a silent snake. In the first story, the turtle is very fond of a spot, but the armadillo has a bad feeling about it. In the second story, turtle has fallen but refuses to concede that it may need help. In the third story, the armadillo and turtle imagine what the future might be like, but this goes in an unexpected direction. In the fourth, the armadillo and snake are enjoying the sunset . . . until they aren’t. Finally, in the last story, turtle is peeved that there’s no space to sleep beside the rock and decides to make its friends feel bad about that fact. On their surface, they don’t sound like much. Taken together, they’re sublime.
Every Jon Klassen book is a play. Or, more precisely, a play on plays. The mistake comes in trying to identify what kinds of stage productions they are, which is precisely what I’m going to do here. I Want My Hat Back? A school play, with characters breaking the fourth wall in precisely the same way a child would break the fourth wall if they saw their parents sitting in the darkened audience, watching. This Is Not My Hat? Shadow puppet theater. We Found a Hat? Not sure. A movie musical with a balletic dream sequence? I’m still deciding. But The Rock From the Sky? Pure Ionesco mixed with Beckett (I was half waiting for the words “they do not move” to show up at some point), only it makes sense and has time travel and aliens stomping around. Some day, mark my words, a director will take each one of these books that Klassen has both authored and illustrated, and either turn them into a series of animated short films utilizing a wide variety of styles and tones, or a stage a play that encompasses all these different styles as different scenes. And why not? If picture books have been breaking down the fourth wall for years, why not break out the experimental theatrical performances?
But see, that’s the thing about Klassen and the fourth wall. It’s commonplace for book characters to talk to their child readers these days. Thanks to Grover, The Pigeon, Press Here, and more, children are told precisely what to do with each one of those books. Touch this! Press that! Klassen never tells you what to do. He never tells you what to think. His characters look right at you but you’re not being encouraged to react directly to them. Instead, those eyes are encouraging you to do the exact opposite: to watch them react as a series of ridiculous events are (or are not) thrust upon them. Even when you know that tragedy is imminent, you don’t feel inclined to call out and warn anyone. Does anyone warn the coyote when his plan to catch the roadrunner is about to result in a bad physical end? So you read this book luxuriating in how it puts you, the reader, into this place of uncertainty. Something terrible could happen at any moment. Isn’t it delicious?
Which brings us to the meticulous utilization of dread in children’s literature. Or, since this is kids we’re talking about, anticipation. Anyone who has ever read the book Fortunately by Remy Charlip to a large group of children knows perfectly well that half the fun of that book is the possibility that you are about to see your hero impaled on a pitchfork or torn to shreds by sharks or flattened by a fall. Klassen is working off of much the same feeling. In the first story you know that a rock is falling. It’s in the title. You really can’t get any clearer than that. So the question is less IF the rock is going to hit than WHEN it’s going to hit. Or, for that matter, who. And by some miracle, if a rock falls it feels surprising. And you laugh both out of relief (on behalf of the characters) and when you see their expressions. Such as they are.
In a little press packet that came with my copy of this book (which stole the phrase “deadpan gem” away from me, so that I cannot use it in this review, curse the marketing team's eloquent hide) Klassen talks a little about why he gave his animals hats (“The characters wear little bowler hats (though the snake has a beret for reasons I’ve not explained to myself)”) and how he has spent some time giving them a nice big sky. What he doesn’t talk about is the facial expressions. I don’t think you’d go out of your way to say that Klassen was the most emotive illustrator out there. You’re not going to get some Chuck Jones-esque on-camera mugging from these characters. In a way, Klassen is the Buster Keaton of the picture book world. But that said, I found these to be MUCH more expressive figures than Klassen had ever tried before. How so? Their eyes. With just the deftest touch, Klassen will widen or narrow the eyes on his characters and the gesture will tell whole novels. I’m thinking of anytime a rock falls or, my personal favorite, when the turtle refuses help in turning over and says to the sleeping armadillo “I am never tired.” Its expression, as it glares into the distance with equal parts stubbornness and determination, is worth the price of the book alone.
It is also, as it just so happens, a book that may be impossible to encapsulate well in a review. Let me put it this way then: Would you like to read a book that will make you laugh and your kids laugh, and all of you are laughing for real, no one faking it, and enjoying this book for the exact same reasons? Because what we have here is a bit of a unicorn. It’s a book that is amusing to children and adults in precisely the same way. It straddles ages and even, I’d suggest, different kinds of senses of humor. Add in the fact that it’s beautiful to look at (yes, kudos on those skies, Jon), a tiny bit poignant, and contains funny hats and I’d say it’s a winner to its core. The kind of book that comes out of the blue and just hits you with its charm.
For ages 4 and up.
November 29, 2021
With the suspension of the Goodreads Choice 2021 Picture Book category, I was of mixed feelings; first, my family yearly rates all the nominees, but we had in recent years been less impressed with the nominees (which Rod Brown found were often published by Amazon subsidiaries). So I consulted a couple sources for likely Caldecott Award nominees, and I asked a few people to read them with me; in general they are so much better than, for instance, last year’s GR bunch. As my kids get older, they have mostly dropped out of the reading, but I still have anywhere from 2-4 readers with me this year.
#5 is “Rock From the Sky,”by Jon Klaasen, and is about a turtle, an armadillo and a snake whointeract around what for them constitute safe spaces, but they also along the way discuss friendship, and the uses of the imagination (as they imagine themselves at some point in a science fiction story involving a War of the Worlds robot).
R (retired librarian): (4 stars). Unique! Simple illustrations. Leaves lots to the imagination.
J (poet/arts educator): (4 stars). I loved this book. It made me laugh so much!
T (electrician): (5 stars). Fabulously weird.
Dave (teacher) (4.5 stars). I am a huge fan of Jon Klaasen. No one writes a picture book like him. He provokes kids to think. My initial impression, with some puzzlement, was that the rock from the sky was a meteor, such as the one that may have made the dinosaurs extinct, or the one they are talking about maybe, though not likely any time soon, and maybe not, going to hit our planet. But no, no, you wouldn't make a book about that for kids!! I guess. So maybe it's just a rock that plops down from the sky somehow, maybe falling off a cliff?
Does it even matter?. Not much actually happens in this book, but Klaasen is completely unique in that he just wants kids to talk about the book and what happens in it, the three creatures and their relationships with each other.
I am imagining a lot of people may not love this because you don't always know what is going on, or why; it seems surreal or at least strange, but that's in part why I like it. It's about, among other things, the spaces that separate us.
#5 is “Rock From the Sky,”by Jon Klaasen, and is about a turtle, an armadillo and a snake whointeract around what for them constitute safe spaces, but they also along the way discuss friendship, and the uses of the imagination (as they imagine themselves at some point in a science fiction story involving a War of the Worlds robot).
R (retired librarian): (4 stars). Unique! Simple illustrations. Leaves lots to the imagination.
J (poet/arts educator): (4 stars). I loved this book. It made me laugh so much!
T (electrician): (5 stars). Fabulously weird.
Dave (teacher) (4.5 stars). I am a huge fan of Jon Klaasen. No one writes a picture book like him. He provokes kids to think. My initial impression, with some puzzlement, was that the rock from the sky was a meteor, such as the one that may have made the dinosaurs extinct, or the one they are talking about maybe, though not likely any time soon, and maybe not, going to hit our planet. But no, no, you wouldn't make a book about that for kids!! I guess. So maybe it's just a rock that plops down from the sky somehow, maybe falling off a cliff?
Does it even matter?. Not much actually happens in this book, but Klaasen is completely unique in that he just wants kids to talk about the book and what happens in it, the three creatures and their relationships with each other.
I am imagining a lot of people may not love this because you don't always know what is going on, or why; it seems surreal or at least strange, but that's in part why I like it. It's about, among other things, the spaces that separate us.
April 28, 2024
واقعا داستان عجیبیه، تصویرگری ها عجیب تر
کتابای کودک هرروز عجیب تر و جذابتر میشن
کتابای کودک هرروز عجیب تر و جذابتر میشن
September 10, 2021
I wish my mind worked like Jon Klassen's mind.
October 30, 2021
Sometimes you have to move on - even if you feel comfortable in 'your' spot. A turtle does not want to move - even as a large rock from the sky is falling and getting closer. Montage like illustrations fit well with this simple tale of adaptation in a time of inevitable change - that is coming fast.
September 4, 2021
How clever!
The Rock from the Sky
By Jon Klassen
I can see why this author is so popular! Taking a simple concept, fun characters, and sprinkle a lot of sly silliness into it and POW! Magic! A book all ages will love!
The Rock from the Sky
By Jon Klassen
I can see why this author is so popular! Taking a simple concept, fun characters, and sprinkle a lot of sly silliness into it and POW! Magic! A book all ages will love!
June 1, 2021
Book Reviewed on www.whisperingstories.com
The Rock from the Sky is a strange and weird children’s picture book, but if you have read author Jon Klassen’s work before you will understand that this is his style.
The story is split into five sections. The Rock, The Fall, The Future, The Sunset, and No More Room. It follows three animals who are kind of friends, Turtle, Armadillo, and Snake.
The illustrations are dark and gloomy, they fill most of the page, though a strip at the top is just white for the words. I love how the author uses capitals to emphasise when the animals are shouting to each other – ‘Come Closer’.
I’ve not fully comprehended the book yet so my thoughts on it are all over the place. I like Klassen’s style, how he moves away from the traditional and gives his work a touch of the unusual, with some great humour attached. As an adult I can comprehend what he is trying to achieve and laughed at numerous pages, however, I worry that a child won’t have a clue what is happening which will leave them dissatisfied with the story. Personally, I thought it was a little long for a children’s picture book at 96 pages.
It’s not a book I can see all children enjoying but if you have a child that likes unusual reads that are dotted with humour then this would be perfect for them.
The Rock from the Sky is a strange and weird children’s picture book, but if you have read author Jon Klassen’s work before you will understand that this is his style.
The story is split into five sections. The Rock, The Fall, The Future, The Sunset, and No More Room. It follows three animals who are kind of friends, Turtle, Armadillo, and Snake.
The illustrations are dark and gloomy, they fill most of the page, though a strip at the top is just white for the words. I love how the author uses capitals to emphasise when the animals are shouting to each other – ‘Come Closer’.
I’ve not fully comprehended the book yet so my thoughts on it are all over the place. I like Klassen’s style, how he moves away from the traditional and gives his work a touch of the unusual, with some great humour attached. As an adult I can comprehend what he is trying to achieve and laughed at numerous pages, however, I worry that a child won’t have a clue what is happening which will leave them dissatisfied with the story. Personally, I thought it was a little long for a children’s picture book at 96 pages.
It’s not a book I can see all children enjoying but if you have a child that likes unusual reads that are dotted with humour then this would be perfect for them.
April 15, 2021
UPDATE: Ok, I get it now. It's like a grumpy six-year old has a conversation George Costanza on an episode of Seinfeld. The story is absurd and the characters are cranky. But together somehow it all works. I feel at peace now.
ORIGINAL: I don’t get it. But like, for real. I don’t understand what this book is about or what the point is. Was this supposed to make sense? What am I missing?
ORIGINAL: I don’t get it. But like, for real. I don’t understand what this book is about or what the point is. Was this supposed to make sense? What am I missing?
February 27, 2022
The marvelously talented Jon Klassen, who produced three quirky but entertaining picture-books about animals and their various hat-related adventures—
I Want My Hat Back
,
This Is Not My Hat
(a Caldecott Medal winner) and
We Found A Hat
—before going on to illustrate many picture-books and novels by other authors, returns with this, the fourth picture-book of his own. Once again, we have animals with hats, but here the drama is driven, not by conflict over headwear, but by the falling of a massive rock from the sky. The narrative is divided into five sections—The Rock, The Fall, The Future, The Sunset, and No More Room—as Turtle, Armadillo and Snake witness the rock's fall, interact with it, take an imaginative journey into the future, and contend with the alien that accompanied the rock...
Although I don't think that The Rock from the Sky is quite the equal of some of Klassen's earlier books, I really enjoyed it, probably because I appreciate the comedic timing of his characters' dialogue, and the deadpan sense of humor of the story overall. I really enjoyed the unrushed feeling here—it's 96 pages, which is astoundingly long, for a picture-book!—and the sense of events unfolding at their own pace. The artwork is vintage Klassen, with a sort of muted but expressive style that everyone seems to want to imitate these days. It's really quite impressive how much feeling is conveyed—exasperation, terror—through Klassen's depiction of his characters' eyes, in particular. The visuals here are simple, but there are very powerful as well. Recommended to Jon Klassen fans, and to picture-book readers looking for offbeat, quirky (and long!) stories for story time.
Although I don't think that The Rock from the Sky is quite the equal of some of Klassen's earlier books, I really enjoyed it, probably because I appreciate the comedic timing of his characters' dialogue, and the deadpan sense of humor of the story overall. I really enjoyed the unrushed feeling here—it's 96 pages, which is astoundingly long, for a picture-book!—and the sense of events unfolding at their own pace. The artwork is vintage Klassen, with a sort of muted but expressive style that everyone seems to want to imitate these days. It's really quite impressive how much feeling is conveyed—exasperation, terror—through Klassen's depiction of his characters' eyes, in particular. The visuals here are simple, but there are very powerful as well. Recommended to Jon Klassen fans, and to picture-book readers looking for offbeat, quirky (and long!) stories for story time.
October 1, 2021
My girls and I have loved others of JK’s books, but this one left me underwhelmed. I get it, the cute and subtle irony, but this wasn’t as good as his “hat” books.
June 19, 2022
Absurdist wry humour apparently and perhaps the kind of thing that I'd ordinarily expect to like.
Unfortunately however, 'Rock from the Sky' is just not for me - not as clever or as insiteful as perhaps it wants to be, Klassen's book left me with an absence of wry smiles or arched raised eyebrows in respect of its allegedly dark musings on friendship.
Literally dark illustrations do not a dark book make.
Unfortunately however, 'Rock from the Sky' is just not for me - not as clever or as insiteful as perhaps it wants to be, Klassen's book left me with an absence of wry smiles or arched raised eyebrows in respect of its allegedly dark musings on friendship.
Literally dark illustrations do not a dark book make.
June 20, 2021
Twisted. A predictable but hilarious start meanders through the dull and the bizarre to a predictable but wholly satisfying conclusion. It's the sort of book that makes you wonder what substances the creator ingests during his leisure time and why he's allowed to write for children.
November 8, 2024
قراءة مشتركة مع طفلي .احببت واحبها
November 2, 2025
This one was so silly 🤭
✨️ 4 star rating ✨️
✨️ 4 star rating ✨️
April 28, 2024
آیا داشت میگفت کامفرت زونتون رو ترک کنین خوبه؟
پس چرا آخرش یه جوری بود انگار بده؟
آیا داشت میگفت اگر بدشانسید از افراد دوری کنین تا سایرین نجات پیدا کنند؟
مدل کتاب های جالبی داره نویسنده.
پس چرا آخرش یه جوری بود انگار بده؟
آیا داشت میگفت اگر بدشانسید از افراد دوری کنین تا سایرین نجات پیدا کنند؟
مدل کتاب های جالبی داره نویسنده.
Read
August 16, 2023Cute and morbid.
May 28, 2021
I cannot hear this book.
I tried reading it again and again. But I still cannot hear what it has to say. Maybe it needs to come closer. :)
I’m not saying I don’t like The Rock from the Sky. I do. I think.
I mean how can I not like a book that pushes me to read? I keep returning to these five very Klassen like chapters to search for clues. Because truth be told…I can’t even begin to explain what this odd little book is about. And I think my clueless-ness is what I love most about the book. A book with favorite spots, sunsets, and falling rocks. And humor! A kind of humor you can’t help slowly smiling at.
Check it out from your local Library.
My favorite line: “I like to sit and watch the sunset. My favorite part is at the very end.”
August 29, 2021
I read this picture book about a turtle, armadillo and snake in chapters (similar to Maurice Sendak's Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue) twice and still felt as if I missed something. I felt the ending was ambiguos. IMHO, Readers will either love it or feel frustrated by it.
Give this one to those who have enjoyed Jon Klassen's other books; I Want my Hat Back or This is not my Hat.
Give this one to those who have enjoyed Jon Klassen's other books; I Want my Hat Back or This is not my Hat.
November 20, 2021
I am sorry if you don't get this book. I am sorry if nobody ever handed you stories with pieces missing, if nobody ever shut the book in the middle and went, "What's gonna happen??" so that you could fill in the blanks with your uninformed, wild kid logic. When I read I Want My Hat Back to little kids and ask them what happened to the rabbit, fully half of them tell me he hopped away after giving the hat back. Another 40% think the bear ate the rabbit, but there's always that 10 per cent who assume the rabbit went to space, or to school, or his mom yelled at him for stealing the hat. What happens off the page happens in the brain.
In a kid's storytelling drawing, there will often be a bear or an alien or peas who wage siege warfare and I like these books because I like kids' brains.
In a kid's storytelling drawing, there will often be a bear or an alien or peas who wage siege warfare and I like these books because I like kids' brains.
May 10, 2021
I liked the developing dread even while I was laughing at/with the three friends, I mean, the cranky turtle and the armadillo and snake, who deal with a big, unexpected intrusion into their lives, and their later musings.
And I loved the artwork.
And I loved the artwork.
Read
May 11, 2021Hilarious and obscure as per usual!
July 13, 2023
Maybe my new favourite Klassen book. It's another simple story told with beautiful artwork. But has some interesting twists including a huge rock falling from the sky and some creatures pulled straight out of War of the Worlds.
April 22, 2021
It might be smart and droll, but it's also so completely and utterly unsatisfying *as a story* it becomes almost a vanity project, something pretty smug. Klassen said he was inspired by Arnold Lobel. Oh no.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODy9Z...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODy9Z...
June 8, 2021
From young readers to adults, The Rock From The Sky has been an absolute smash.
August 4, 2022
Que no se entere Pennac que ya no les leo a mis hijos. La fase del acompañamiento se acabó y al final, de todos esos años sumergido en lecturas en voz alta de cuentos, libros, álbumes ilustrados, grapas y hasta un par de omnigolds de la Patrulla-X, me ha quedado una afición por la literatura infantil y juvenil y unos cuantos nombres a los que seguiré la pista en solitario.
Jon Klassen es uno de ellos, por sus personajes hieráticos propensos a la suspicacia y a la ira, por sus paisajes desérticos, por sus diálogos minimalistas, por la manera que tiene de dilatar el tiempo, de generar tensión con muy pocos elementos y por, en definitiva, su sentido del humor extraño, casi akikaurismäkiano.
“La roca del cielo” es un Klassen cercano a sus obras más conocidas e introduce como novedad algún apunte de ciencia ficción. Hay otro Klassen que se deja ver menos, uno más melancólico, el que ilustra “House Held Up by Trees” de Ted Kooser. Pero eso es otro cuento.
Jon Klassen es uno de ellos, por sus personajes hieráticos propensos a la suspicacia y a la ira, por sus paisajes desérticos, por sus diálogos minimalistas, por la manera que tiene de dilatar el tiempo, de generar tensión con muy pocos elementos y por, en definitiva, su sentido del humor extraño, casi akikaurismäkiano.
“La roca del cielo” es un Klassen cercano a sus obras más conocidas e introduce como novedad algún apunte de ciencia ficción. Hay otro Klassen que se deja ver menos, uno más melancólico, el que ilustra “House Held Up by Trees” de Ted Kooser. Pero eso es otro cuento.
May 22, 2025
A series of short stories that build off of each other. Even though they're animals with hats, and most of the stories' happenings are based on coincidence and gut feelings, as well as the appearance of a certain alien, it feels true.
April 13, 2021
So weird.
October 22, 2024
Als je dit boek ziet, weet je gelijk: dit is bijzonder. Geen rots te zien op het omslag, laat staan van boven. Wel in letters in de titel. Geen felle kleuren en toch nodigt het minimalistische uit tot openen van dit dikke prentenboek.
Jon Klassen is o.a. bekend van ‘Ik wil mijn hoed terug’, ‘We hebben een hoed’ en ‘Deze hoed is niet van mij’. Ook in dit boek dragen de personages schildpad, gordeldier en slang een hoed, echter de verblijfplek is hier het onderwerp.
Het verhaal bestaat uit vier delen. In het eerste deel vertelt de schildpad dat hij heel graag bij de bloem staat en dat hij nooit ergens anders meer wil staan. Een steen ergens in het universum op de volgende bladzijde komt van boven. Het gordeldier komt aangelopen en vraagt wat de schildpad aan het doen is: ‘Ik sta op mijn lievelingsplek.’ Het gordeldier vindt het geen fijne plek, het gevoel is niet goed. Hij ziet een andere plek bij een plantje en gaat er even staan om te zien of het beter voelt. Vervolgens kunnen ze elkaar niet verstaan, ’JE BENT TE VER WEG.’ en komt even terug.
Zo gaat de conversatie op een droge humoristische manier verder. Wat voelt goed, wat voelt beter. Ze staan alleen. De een bij een bloem, de ander bij een plantje. Dan komt de slang erbij en stopt bij het gordeldier. De schildpad gaat overstag. Net op tijd. Ze staan met zijn drieën bij de plant. En dan valt er iets. Een rots.
Een rots: je kunt erop klimmen, erbij zitten en er is plek genoeg voor twee. Het wordt avond en ze bedenken hoe de toekomst eruit zou kunnen zien. Ze filosoferen wat en zien een compleet bos voor zich, daar bovenop die rots. Ze denken iets te horen, maar ook te zien. Is dat de toekomst?
In het laatste hoofdstukken gaat de zon onder in hun eigen tijd. De mooiste tijd waarin niets in de weg staat, maar nog steeds de goede eigen plek belangrijk is en niet iedereen alles kan horen. Dan ga je dichterbij de anderen staan. Net op tijd samen.
Een verhaal over vriendschap, onzeker zijn en een blik naar de toekomst gericht. De tekst bevat korte zinnen die veel uitdrukken. De mooie illustraties stralen rust uit en zijn ingetogen van kleur waarbij de enkele details veel uitdrukken door lichaamshouding en gezichtsuitdrukking van de dieren. Een prentenboek dat zeer knap in elkaar steekt en voor verschillende leeftijden anders geïnterpreteerd zal worden door de ingebrachte lagen. Een filosofische ‘wat als’ kan een mooie discussie teweegbrengen.
Een fantastisch mooi en ook grappig prentenboek dat door eenvoud in kleur en treffende woordkeuze opvalt en juist daardoor een prachtig doordacht verhaal is voor alle leeftijden.
Jon Klassen is o.a. bekend van ‘Ik wil mijn hoed terug’, ‘We hebben een hoed’ en ‘Deze hoed is niet van mij’. Ook in dit boek dragen de personages schildpad, gordeldier en slang een hoed, echter de verblijfplek is hier het onderwerp.
Het verhaal bestaat uit vier delen. In het eerste deel vertelt de schildpad dat hij heel graag bij de bloem staat en dat hij nooit ergens anders meer wil staan. Een steen ergens in het universum op de volgende bladzijde komt van boven. Het gordeldier komt aangelopen en vraagt wat de schildpad aan het doen is: ‘Ik sta op mijn lievelingsplek.’ Het gordeldier vindt het geen fijne plek, het gevoel is niet goed. Hij ziet een andere plek bij een plantje en gaat er even staan om te zien of het beter voelt. Vervolgens kunnen ze elkaar niet verstaan, ’JE BENT TE VER WEG.’ en komt even terug.
Zo gaat de conversatie op een droge humoristische manier verder. Wat voelt goed, wat voelt beter. Ze staan alleen. De een bij een bloem, de ander bij een plantje. Dan komt de slang erbij en stopt bij het gordeldier. De schildpad gaat overstag. Net op tijd. Ze staan met zijn drieën bij de plant. En dan valt er iets. Een rots.
Een rots: je kunt erop klimmen, erbij zitten en er is plek genoeg voor twee. Het wordt avond en ze bedenken hoe de toekomst eruit zou kunnen zien. Ze filosoferen wat en zien een compleet bos voor zich, daar bovenop die rots. Ze denken iets te horen, maar ook te zien. Is dat de toekomst?
In het laatste hoofdstukken gaat de zon onder in hun eigen tijd. De mooiste tijd waarin niets in de weg staat, maar nog steeds de goede eigen plek belangrijk is en niet iedereen alles kan horen. Dan ga je dichterbij de anderen staan. Net op tijd samen.
Een verhaal over vriendschap, onzeker zijn en een blik naar de toekomst gericht. De tekst bevat korte zinnen die veel uitdrukken. De mooie illustraties stralen rust uit en zijn ingetogen van kleur waarbij de enkele details veel uitdrukken door lichaamshouding en gezichtsuitdrukking van de dieren. Een prentenboek dat zeer knap in elkaar steekt en voor verschillende leeftijden anders geïnterpreteerd zal worden door de ingebrachte lagen. Een filosofische ‘wat als’ kan een mooie discussie teweegbrengen.
Een fantastisch mooi en ook grappig prentenboek dat door eenvoud in kleur en treffende woordkeuze opvalt en juist daardoor een prachtig doordacht verhaal is voor alle leeftijden.
May 3, 2021
Bwahahaha! I love the surrealism and somewhat creepy nature of these books. I also LOVE the bizarre baddie who threatens our friends' peace and quiet.
May 4, 2021
The exploration of minimalistic conflict, challenges of divided and disjointed communication and the potential harms that it can amplify and create, and crucially the retooling of the overarching apocalyptic themes to cement the main narratives of joy, trust and harmonious cohabitation within constantly changing landscapes are what once again bring Jon Klassen a class above the rest in this genre. Wish there was a copy in French, though.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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