02/24/2020
Lorenzo, obsessed with his cell phone, barely notices when he and his mother move to a country house: “Do we have Wi-Fi?” he asks. An enormous old rolltop desk reveals a notebook filled with stories illustrated in cut-paper collage, and Lorenzo starts reading. Throughout, artist Decur toggles deftly between Lorenzo’s world and surreal episodes from the journal, the crisp, brightly colored pages crackling with circus-like energy, the somber paintings reflecting Lorenzo’s slow but steady awakening. In the first journal story, two animals tossing a ball around break a chandelier. A nightmarish sequence shows the broken lamp pursuing them like an enormous grasshopper. The story haunts Lorenzo (“He sat completely still... without understanding any of what he had just read”), who soon notices that the new home’s hall chandelier is also broken. More reading prods Lorenzo to explore his new neighborhood, where he finds other places that the notebook twines with real life. His final discovery ties all the story’s loose ends together with a moving revelation of the notebook’s provenance. Lorenzo’s transformation as he explores his surroundings, finds compassion, and learns to create is tenderly drawn in this testimony to IRL authenticity. Ages 7–12. (Apr.)
"Children will pore over this moody watercolor-soaked story of an introvert’s creative awakening, which contains within it a bright collage of weirdly wonderful dreams and nightmares, while adults will covet it as a work of art that speaks to their inner child. A picture book-graphic novel hybrid by the self-taught Argentine artist Guillermo Decurgez (known as Decur), translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts and also available in a Spanish-language edition, it begins on 'moving day,' as a boy who believes the world exists only inside his cellphone finds a mysterious notebook in the secret compartment of a desk in his new room." —The New York Times
"Decur toggles deftly between Lorenzo’s world and surreal episodes from the journal, the crisp, brightly colored pages crackling with circus-like energy, the somber paintings reflecting Lorenzo’s slow but steady awakening." —Publishers Weekly
"When You Look Up is a powerful, brilliant book about discovering ourselves through and in stories. This is a profound, powerful, brilliant picture book about stories within stories, stories about stories, stories for stories. It’s a book that takes you to your own hidden depths and urges you to become both a creator and an interpreter. It’s about reaching within and reaching out." —The Indian Express
"Argentine writer and illustrator Decurgez employs a variety of artistic techniques to transport Lorenzo, and middle-grade readers, in and out of the imaginative world of the notebook. At 184 pages, this extended picture book is a visual feast, but also quietly thoughtful." —World Magazine
03/27/2020
Gr 3–5—Lorenzo and his mom are moving to a new home away from everyone, and the only way Lorenzo can keep in touch with his old life is through his phone. As he begins to lose signal the further they travel, Lorenzo is forced to pay attention to the world that's directly in front of him. After arriving at his new home, Lorenzo explores an old desk in his new room and discovers that behind a secret door under the desk lies a notebook containing strange but fascinating tales. This Spanish-language translation defies strict format definitions, straddling the line between picture book and graphic novel. Character actions are often described instead of visually depicted, narration is done without boxes, and paneling is often eschewed in favor of full-page or two-page spreads, particularly in the notebook sections. The notebook serves as a device to showcase multiple stories within a story, with the tales read by Lorenzo portrayed in a collage-esque style, using a vibrant mustard yellow that strongly contrasts with the more subdued and ashen sage-based palette of Lorenzo's narrative. There are also subtle traces of visual depth within both styles: The collage pages resemble layered construction with textured materials, and the art of the main story includes visible brushstrokes in layered paint. Lorenzo shows growth as he learns to show interest in others, but the real focus is on the notebook. VERDICT A quirky and imaginative tale for young readers with mature tastes about the rewards of disconnecting from technology to connect with others.—Alea Perez, Elmhurst Public Library, IL
2020-03-29
A lonely child encounters a new diversion in a new home.
The story begins with Lorenzo, a little boy with blue, gogglelike glasses and pink skin, preparing to move to a new house with his mother. In the car, a classic “when I was your age…” from Mom sets the tone in an unsuccessful attempt to pull him from his cellphone to admire the scenery from the car window or the spacious property of their new house. The structure is strange and empty of all but unfamiliar smells and a peculiar notebook hidden in an antique writing desk. Upon Lorenzo’s opening it, the pages change from a lush, cool-toned palette to vibrant sunflower-yellow, providing a background for candy-colored papercut illustrations depicting fantastical stories of cats riding bicycles, tiny teal quail building mysterious machines, and more. The stories reflect Lorenzo’s surroundings with the distorted logic of a dream, leading him to search for and eventually uncover the truth behind them—his discoveries cleverly depicted with bright cut paper laid over the painterly gouache “real world.” Alas, due to unnecessary moralization and a string of uniformly white human characters broken only by a singular, uncomfortably depicted black man, it fails to positively reflect the magic of the world beyond its pages. In the simultaneously publishing original Spanish text, readers will enjoy much more amusing use of onomatopoeia and side commentary from background characters.
Unconvincing text distracts from utterly enchanting illustration. (Graphic novel. 6-10)
