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Caution: Reading this book with your kids will probably make them want to start folding paper airplanes (and you will want to as well), so may not be ideal for bedtime reading.
What is it
The Great Paper Caper is a unique book, written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, previously known for “The Incredible Book-Eating Boy” and many other titles.
Most of the creatures (plus one kid) of the forest work together to solve the mystery of why so many tree branches are disappearing.
Who is it for
This is a fun one for non-readers and beginning readers as well as more mature readers. The story is not that complex, but most of the plot is implicit and the very young may not understand what’s going on. For example, on one page we see an owl alighting upon a branch, and a few pages later we see the owl trying to do so again, but no branch is there. Inferring that someone has sawn off the branch is a mental leap that very young kids can’t make.
While younger kids focus on the animals and the overt aspects of the pictures, older kids focus more on the bear and his motivations.
What Kids Like
The book is very dense with details. Even the inside cover includes instructions for different paper airplanes (and the instructions on the inside of the back cover are different from the ones on the front). So they like poring over the drawings, studying the details.
The book is also very varied in how it approaches storytelling. A few pages have overt descriptions of what is happening, other pages rely entirely on images to tell the story. Part of the book is a kid-level police procedural while others parts are a touching, almost somber exploration of the motivation of the “villain” in the story.
And of course, they get inspired to make their own paper airplanes.
What Parents Like
I’m generally a fan of auteur works like this, where the pictures are drawn by the person who wrote the story. Having a single vision for art and word makes it a more personal and unique creation. Collaborative works can be wonderful, but they are more likely to have that taste of where the creative decisions were made by committee. This book does not have that problem, and the occasional weirdness or inconsistency in style makes it that much more interesting for both adults and kids.
This is also fun to read because there are multiple ways to do so. Because so much of the story is told through pictures, I can choose to either describe the actions in detail, or briefly, or I can just stick to the text and let the kids figure out the meaning of the pictures on their own.
The book hints at issues such as mistrust and guilt, and if you take the time the book can spawn some interesting conversations with your kids.
The book is even used as a teaching resource to explore issues such as empathy and creativity
What the Critics Think
“The Great Paper Caper” gets 4/5 on Goodreads
Publishers Weekly has a review, as does The School Library Journal
Who Made it
Oliver Jeffers is an Irish artist (born in Australia and now living in Brooklyn) also known for his childrens’ book illustrations, most famous for the pictures in “The Day the Crayons Quit” by Drew Daywalt, and also for the pictures in “The Boy in the Striped Pajames” by John Boyne.
Jeffers has many of his own books as well, that he wrote and illustrated on his own.
He has been putting out two or three books each year since 2004.
Where Can I Get it