A Few Blocks

A Few Blocks by Cybele Young
2011

     It's time for Viola and her younger brother Ferdie to head out to school.  Ferdie doesn't feel like going, "not now, maybe never."  So Viola grabs his coat and says, "Ferdie, look! I found your superfast cape! Quick -put on your rocket-blaster boots and we'll take off!"  And so their journey towards school begins, imagining they are speeding faster than a jet through the city.  Anytime Ferdie gets tired and stops walking, Viola uses her imagination to keep her brother going.  Until Viola needs some help of her own.
     A Few Blocks is a very memorable book.  Cybele Young illustrations are stunning. She uses 3-D paper sculptures to create the world imagined by the two children.  The sculptures are made with paper cut outs of urban images of the children's neighborhood.  It's an amazing thing to see -which of course adds to the fantasy of the text itself.  Viola's love and patience for her brother makes it also a very tender story.  I love this book.