The Cloudchasers

The Cloudchasers #1

by David Walton Richardson, Steven Hunt (Illustrator), Steven B. Hunt

Genres: Picture Books, Fantasy

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Rebecca Fung · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book definitely got my attention and held it with its amazing illustrations. I "borrowed" it from a child's collection.

The story is pretty good but fairly standard for a child's fantasy. We have a girl who is imaginative in a regime which frowns on that and she needs to escape the oppression. No one understands her. She ends up on a quest/adventure with a newfound friend and her brother who is by-the-book in favour of the regime and rules. The adventure is kind of interesting, mainly because of the great illustrations.

I loved the settings - the oppressive regime against the thrill of the circus and the hot air balloon. Great fun places to set adventures.

The illustrations are gorgeous but I think especially I like how Thomas is depicted - he looks like a little Nazi, ready to dob his sister in.

While the storyline is fairly predictable, I particularly liked the way it was told with a vocabulary that was pretty challenging for the picture book age group and so this was a chapter book in a picture book - fantastic and beautiful. I loved it.

[Joelzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in a beautiful little second hand shop, and I thought it was interesting because the illustrations where a little on the creepier side for your average Childrens story. In didnt realise I had picked up a dystopian illustrated Childrens book with a sequel!!!!!! This book was amazing, I loved reading it and I can bit wait for the second one to come in the mail and man is Thomas an annoying little brainwashed ........ Loved it!

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historien er en 2er, Illustrationerne trækker op på samlet bedømmelse på 3 stjerner

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un bel album à découvrir.

Malheureusement, il date de plusieurs années et le deuxième tome de la série est introuvable.

[The Bookshop Umina]

An engaging story aimed at the 8-15year old readers. A great adventure that looks at the power of imagination in a dystopian society where all individual drawing and imagination have been banned.



The illustrations are dark and lush and very appealing for the market it is aimed at. I too wish that they were not computer illustrations but think they do a great job at helping to propel this story - I will certainly be looking out for book two in October!

[C.A. Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are beautiful and without those the entire story would be flat and lifeless. While I liked the story concept, the prose was dull and did not move me. I had to work hard to push myself to read it all. The story itself felt bland and beige. I also read the sequel and found that the true draw card is the art.
I would love to see this story bought to life with a better use of words. I give the art five stars and the story two which evens out to a three star rating.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story would have been much better as a single volume book. I'm writing this review before reading the sequel, but this book was pretty dark most of the way through with only minimal lightness to lift it at the end. I can see where they're going with it, but this particular volume felt unfinished. I suspect my final review will recommend reading the two volumes together.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of the computer illustrations, so that kind of ruined it for me...

[Niamh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book
The pictures are amazing and it has a really good plot and strong characters