Re-Zoom

Zoom

by Istvan Banyai

Open this wordless book and take off on mind-bending visual journeys full of twists, turns, and surprises. Zoom from an Egyptian pyramid to an exotic jungle to a sandy beach. But if you think you know where you are, guess again. For in Istvan Banyai's mysterious landscapes of pictures within pictures, nothing is ever as it seems.

Genres: Picture Books, Art, Childrens, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Travel, Juvenile

64 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Illustrator and animator

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful design and lesson on attention to detail. Great book that will help small children understand perspective better; by 'zooming' closer to a given object as it (almost magically) changes. This is the kind of book that can be read many times, each time more details will be noticed and appreciated.

[Radwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful!

[Gina Valdes · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Zoom, I was interested in looking at Re-zoom. I didn’t think another book could be made using the same idea and still be good. I’m glad I did! I liked the second book just as much as the first. I still think that it is such a great and creative concept for a children’s book. The illustrations in this story are so bright and detailed; any child would be drawn to them. What really stood out to me about the sequel, unlike Zoom, is that it focused on multiple cultures. I love that it takes the reader around the world to places such as China, Brazil, France, and Egypt. Every page is so different than the last, and the pictures have so much to look at. I think it is a really good book to use in a classroom when discussing multiple cultures. It really gives kids an up close idea of cultural perspectives from around the world.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So clever and so much fun. This is a zoom out wordless picture book. Each picture gets smaller and smaller within the next picture. Overall, I don’t think I liked this one quite as much as the first book, Zoom, but there were a few pages I found just brilliant. I got “lost” more in this one than the other and found that reading parts of it required careful attention on my part, but that’s a good thing.

Pre-readers can read and understand this and should find it fun, yet sometimes a bit of a challenge too, in a good way.

I wouldn’t like the pictures out of context but in this book they’re fabulous.

[Olivia Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts off with a zoomed in image and as the book progresses we see more and more of the bigger picture as you turn each page. It started of well but got a bit confusing as it was difficult to see where the pictures came from. I would have to read it a couple of times in order to notice all the details in the pictures as there are a lot of references to different cultures and people which you couldn't notice in one read. Overall I thought it was clever but unsure whether it is something I would recommend.

[Crystal Marcos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read both Zoom and Re-Zoom the follow up book back to back. This is a great sequel. My entire family enjoyed the experience. Unlike the first book, I did get lost once in the book and had to retrace my steps and I still had the same problem. It wasn't as seamless as the first. Over all it didn't bother enough to take off more than one star. The illustrations worked well with the concept of the books. It is a clever wordless picture book all ages would enjoy. Recommending this one to my friends.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-Zoom by Istvan Banyai is another wordless pcture book gem, that is a journey of perspective, with twists and surprises. Each scene is from farther away, revealing a scene. first from a piece of scenery on a movie set, that is an illutrations on a trunk, which is a detail in a painting, that is a detail on a fan, etc.

There are many, many details, and some witty ones, with illustrations of my fave Aflred Hitchcock, Pablo Picasso. Albert Einstein and Charles Lindbergh, Clever and fun.

For ages 5 and up, wordless, and fans of Zoom and Istvan Banyai.

[Jocelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was a long read but totally worth it!

[Hannah Higson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a strange but cool book

Lots of different cultures involved

[Abdel Aziz Amer · Rating 3 out of 5]

إعادة للفكرة السابقة الموجودة بكتاب "زووم" ولكن الرسومات أقل من سابقتها وأكثر سرعة في التغيير والتتابع .. بالإضافة إلى أن الفكرة لم تعد تحمل نفس مستوى الإبهار الأول.

[Ehab Fathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a creative thing
Indeed, he has impressed me

[Angel Torres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun and very well made.
It's the same concept as the first book but a little less refined. Regardless, it's still fun and quite a trip.

[Bix · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this follow-up to 1995's Zoom, Banyai toys with perception as each picture becomes just a detail in a larger scene. Playful, witty and colorful, this wordless picture book will amaze readers ages 5 and up. With witty details that will appeal to adults (including cameos by Alfred Hitchcock, Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein and Charles Lindbergh)."

SPL Summary: " A wordless picture book presents a series of scenes, each one from farther away, showing, for example, a boat which becomes the image on a magazine, which is held in a hand, which belongs to a boy, and so on."

SLJ: "K-Gr 5. This remarkable companion to Zoom (Viking, 1995) is a visual journey, a cinematic picture book without words. Viewers are shown something that turns out to be just a piece of something larger, and thus not at all what they saw (or thought they saw) in the first place. With each page, one takes a step back to see the broader context... A fun book with a lot to ``say''--all in all, a valuable addition."

PW: "Featuring detailed drawings backpainted on animation cels, this text-free volume opens with a red-on-blue cave painting that, with the turn of a page, becomes a detail on a wristwatch. The next spread reveals that the watch belongs to a young man doing a rubbing of carved hieroglyphs... and so on... The finale-which leaves readers in a subway tunnel as the train's red taillights recede-may not be as mindbending as Zoom's outer-space flight, but is nonetheless a clever solution. All ages."

[Sarah Ravel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-Zoom by Istvan Banyai is a wordless picture book that will engage almost any reader. The book begins with a grainy read and blue image that is hard to discern. At every turn of the page, the verso is a solid black page directing the reader's eye to the recto. Each recto contains a full bleed illustration. Each illustration zooms outward from the previous picture. The illustrator moves the reader from an ancient symbol in an obelisk to a city image, to the same image on a poster, which is then inside a movie set. This trend continues throughout the book with each image widening the perspective. Readers can then choose in which order to read the book. Reading front to back we zoom out each time, while reading back to front the images zoom in. The books contains certain elements found in many postmodern picture books. These include an emphasis on the role the reader must play in reading and interpreting the images. In addition, it also references itself through an image of a bulletin board with the number 1-800-Re-ZOOM printed on it.

[Ashley Cousin · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Zoom I definitely had some expectation for Re-Zoom and I was not disappointed. Upon first looking at the cover of Re-Zoom you see the same plain background with the word Zoom and the author written in black font. However the backgroung is a bright blue and the word "Re" is done in the same color yellow as the side binding, the back is still a plain black. When opening the book up you notice the black end pages. The title page is just like Zoom in that it is a reverse from the cover page, it has the black background and the blue and yellow font. The illustrations are on the right side and on the left side is a plain black page. I think this was used to make all of the attention go on one illustration, which since it is a worldless picture book, is very important. The colors are bright and vivid and contain a lot of detail. Again, I really enjoyed this worldless post modern picture book, it gives a different perspective about things.

[Jayleen Earley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zoom and Re-zoom are both books I would love to have in my library! To show students how creative they can be with art. Also to show them that not everything is what it seems, there is always a BIGGER picture and sometimes with bigger meaning. Each page of re-zoom was about a different culture and drawn in a different destination. They all have different themes and unexpected surprises on each page. With these books I cant wait to turn the page to unleash the mystery! The artist has a way of making you say "wow! I would have never thought of that!" My initial reaction to Zoom and Re-zoom was the complete opposite reaction i got when I opened the book. I did not think I would enjoy the book this much and I was not excited to read it. I am so glad I did! It has opened my eyes to the incredible things that can be done with art. The front cover of the book is so simple and blank, I would have never thought it would have what it has on the inside.

[Jonathan Ryal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-zoom was one of the most interesting books I've ever read, or looked at since it is all pictures. It is a great concept and continually has you thinking. The pictures are detailed and bright and bring a variety of cultural aspects to the forefront. The book takes us through by starting out with an image that you may or may not be able to identify. As we turn each page, the picture backs out. So what we thought might have been a sand art was really a design on a watch. What we thought was a man with a watch was a guy wearing a watch painting hieroglyphics. It continues doing this until we end up on a train going into a dark tunnel and we are left with a speck on a black page. There are so many activities you can do with this book. I personally tried to guess what might be on the next page and failed miserably.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-Zoom by Istvan Banyai (Puffin Books 1995) (Nonfiction - children's) is fantastic, just fantastic. There's no way to describe it, other than to say it's the same format as the author's original volume which was entitled Zoom. Here's how the book works: you see a hand-drawn picture on page one. You turn the page, and you see the same picture but from a remove so that the perspective is different. You turn the page, and you see what you previously saw, but it's not the same. The perspective has changed, and it's the same thing, but it's something completely different. The reality has changed! Do you see? You can't imagine it from this explanation - you just have to see for yourself, and I strongly urge you to do so. My rating: 8/10, finished 8/4/13.

[Victoria Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

ReZoom is a great wordless picture book that takes you on a journey through different perspectives. The cover starts out very simple with just the title and a man touching a letter in the title which causes the letter to swirl. As you begin to read you notice that the left page is always covered in black and the right page is a different perspective of the page before. However, just when you think you have it all figured out you are taken on another journey through another perspective. The illustrations are filled with wonderful colors which keep you intrigued and always guessing. This a great book!

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-Zoom revisits the joy of Zoom. The visual puzzles are a bit trickier this time around. Felt like they were more coherent in Zoom, but that didn't take anything away from Re-Zoom for me.

Personally preferred the ending in Zoom, which leaves you with a sense of grandeur and is reminiscent of the Pale Blue Dot. Re-Zoom's ending does not have that philosophical, hopeful connotation, but it has the advantage of being humorous with a few cameos of famous personalities, and gracefully zooming out of the story, into the dark.

[Johncady · Rating 5 out of 5]

ReZoom revisits the same idea as the original Zoom. It takes the reader on a wordless journey from one image to the next. The perspective of each changes as the image zooms out to show how the first image was part of something larger. Page by page we are pulled farther out of the first image, and each time it changes to something the reader doesn't expect, and each with its own new perspective. The illustrations are highly detailed and colorful, which completely transports the reader from each scene to the next. This is a fun read for any child.

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Banyai is a genius. "Zoom" was incredible, and "Re-Zoom" is just as good. Banyai zooms in real close to a scene, person, or object and then the next page zooms out to show the same thing from a new perspective. Re-zooming, zooms in on something from the same scene. Nothing is what it seems but everything is connected...brilliant!

I also appreciated the black divider pages, nice contrast to the detailed art of the zoomed in and out images.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zoom and Re-Zoom are great books to teach students about "sequence of events." I took the books apart and laminated the individual pages. I get the students in groups and let them figure out how to place the pages in the proper sequence of events on the floor. This is a fun and educational group experience.

[Shannon Guscetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-Zoom has the reader zooming out of each individual photo. The left page is all black and the right page has the image. The following page shows a zoomed out image of the previous page. The reader is constantly seeing a new image and each image is different than the page before, with some of the image from the previous page in it. We end on a subway train going away.

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING!!! Love the mind-twisting pictures in it. What we saw is not what we think.
This book is a wordless story, with surprises in each turning page. I love it! Love it!

What can I say? I LOVE it! :)

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this book blew me away! I loved imagining what would be on the next page, then flipping back to see the story in reverse or look at one zoom stage more closely. The art reminded me of old comic books and made my eyes sing a happy eye-song.

[Marlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing! Spectacular pictures. Each new page is a surprise. We did this book from beginning to end, and then from end to beginning. It's fascinating to watch each of the pictures zoom out and each time become amazed to discover what the last picture really was.

[Katie Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK! So fun to read for any age.

[Annika Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like the first version "Zoom," I really enjoyed "Re-Zoom" and wanted to keep looking through the book to make connections between all the intertwined images. The book has nearly the same format as Zoom, starting with what appears to be a biological slide but zooming out to show hieroglyphics, painting, films, and more. You're not only traveling within the interconnected images of the book, but also within cultures and eras. What does it say about our global community that we can be fooled into thinking the art on a Japanese geisha's fan could appear just as easily on an American beach-side billboard? I loved the art of the book just like Zoom and was impressed that the illustrator could come up with another version with just as impactful of an ending, as the subway lights faded into the dark.

[Dani K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Banyai’s Re-Zoom doesn’t exactly pick up where Zoom left off, the reader does resume the process of solving visual puzzles. Just like Zoom, this wordless picture book features a series of progressive openings beginning with a closely zoomed in image. In this case, the image is a close up, textured image of a man with a bow, very reminiscent of cave paintings. In fact, the image is zoomed in so closely that the reader might not recognize the image at first. As the page is turned, a zoomed out version of the same image appears, with each progressive opening pulling further and further back from the original image.

It is the slow zooming out from the original image that involves the reader in visual shenanigans. As the reader gets further and further away from the original image, their initial expectations for the setting of the story are confounded. For example, the cave painting of the man with the bow turns out to a replica image on the watch face of an archeologist who is taking a rubbing of a wall in an Egyptian tomb. Each subsequent “reveal” takes the reader further outside their initial expectations until they find themselves staring at headlights.

As with Zoom, the recto side of each opening contains a full bleed picture, while the verso side is solid black. The black page serves to keep the reader’s attention on the image as this is the central focus of the wordless picture book. Also, the black page becomes part of the image as the zoom outs progress. Closer to the end of the book, the black page creates several seamless, double-page spreads that give the reader an overall impression of a larger world in which these smaller images have existed. Essentially, the text “fades to black” like a movie coming to end.

The text’s self-referential nature keeps the reader’s awareness on the fact that they are engaging with a book which some readers might find frustrating. This is certainly not a book a person can escape into. However, it definitely holds one’s attention. With each reveal, the reader tries to predict where the zoom outs will lead them (with varying levels of success). Of course, Banyai has included clues within the text which before more and more apparent during additional read throughs. For instance, one zoom out reveals a movie crew filming in front of backdrops amid an orange sky. Clearly, orange is not a natural color for a sky which clues the reader into the possibility that the next reveal will expose this setting as not being part of the natural world.

Ironically, this self-referential nature does not extend to such book necessities as the publication page. Instead of being placed at the beginning of the text, as is traditionally the case, the publication page can be found in the back of the book after the final reveal and the “fade to black.” As with the black pages early on, this appears to have been done in an effort not to detract the reader’s attention from the initial image. Rather, the book begins with a vibrant splash of color immediately following the title page.

For readers who enjoyed Zoom, Re-Zoom is an obvious choice. For readers who enjoy intellectual exercises such as trying to piece the truth together from a minimal number of clues, this book is an excellent choice. For readers looking for a story, Re-Zoom is not quite what you are looking for.