Ike's Incredible Ink

by Brianne Farley, Brianne Farley (Illustrator)

Overview

The journey is the important thing in this tale of a sympathetic — if temporarily distracted — artistic soul.

Features an audio read-along! Ike wants to write a story, an incredible story. He’s all ready to go, but even after cleaning his room and calling his best friend, he somehow can’t seem to get started. And then Ike realizes what’s missing — he needs new ink. His very own ink, made from just the right ingredients. Now what can Ike find that is velvety, dark, and sneaky, just like ink? How far will he go to get it? In Brianne Farley’s whimsical debut picture book, freely illustrated in a fresh, bold collage style, Ike’s adventurous quest to find the perfect ink might just be the inspiration he needs to get started on his incredible story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763671396
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	10/22/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Brianne Farley is a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her freelance work has been selected by the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. And while her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, the New York Times, and elsewhere, Ike’s Incredible Ink is her first book. Brianne Farley lives in Brooklyn.

Editorial Reviews

Ike—an inkblot with chickeny legs, a dome head, and an eager smile—is also a blocked writer. Like many before him, he procrastinates (“A bit of cleaning was also in order”), and then he decides that his story demands ink made from exceptional ingredients: shadows, the feathers of a booga-bird, and the essence of the dark side of the moon (which requires building a rocket ship). After some chaotic concocting (“He mashed, he bludgeoned, he crushed, and he steamed”), Ike sits down to write and, sure enough, a story inspired by his ink quest materializes. The structure of Farley’s debut feels a little like Ike’s journey: well-intentioned, but convoluted and somewhat repetitive. However, Farley is a genuine talent, playing with detail, scale, and texture like a seasoned pro, giving her images a sweet, eccentric, comic rhythm. And there are some marvelous individual spreads, including one that definitively and spectacularly answers the question, What happens when you mix ink in a blender and leave the lid off? Ages 4–8. Agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary Management. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Endearing.
—The New York Times

Farley is a genuine talent, playing with detail, scale, and texture like a seasoned pro, giving her images a sweet, eccentric, comic rhythm.
—Publishers Weekly

The long and winding—and funny and diverting—road to creative endeavor. ... A realistically comical look at artistic process disguised as merry procrastination.
—Kirkus Reviews

The art is striking and great fun to explore. Kids will be drawn to the quirky book.
—School Library Journal

[An] attractively rendered tale... The streamlined text reads aloud smoothly, it and is complemented by Farley’s crisp illustrations, rendered in ink and digital collage.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Illustrations completely fill each page, and they are fun. Ike’s body may only be an inkblot, but his personality shines through.
—Library Media Connection

Farley does a masterful job exposing the beauty of imagination through this young character in her book for beginning readers. Each page boasts its own perceived texture and mood, and Farley does not wait for the page turn to show her hand. Farley’s debut picture book is full of high-contrast, stylized images; hopeful endeavors; and the elusive message that the journey is just as important (or more so) than the finish line. Ike’s Incredible Ink is playful, smart, and whimsical in design, much like creativity at a young age should be. Ike, like the book’s author, is daring, works against the grain, and is ready to turn a pressed pen into an infectiously fun inkblot.
—Booklist Online

More metafictional fun. … [A] good story within a story.
—The Atlantic Wire

From the Publisher

Gr 1–3—Ike wants to write an incredible story and feels that all the reading he has done has prepared him for this moment. Unfortunately, what he expects to come easily does not, and he becomes frustrated with the process. So Ike does what every good author does: he procrastinates. He cleans, he searches for a favorite pen, and chats with friends. When the story still eludes him, he sets off on a quest to find what he has identified as the magical missing ingredient-ink! Ike seeks out everything he associates with the word "inky." A shadow is inky as are feathers from a certain bird. It is the third ingredient that shows that the protagonist will go to any lengths to make his perfect ink. He goes to the Moon. The idea that someone will go to such lengths to procure the perfect ink is fantastically silly. The art is done in, well, ink, but other items are digitally collaged to create a spontaneous and funny look to the book. Ike's attempt to blend together the ingredients but forgetting to put the lid on the blender will crack up young readers. The art is striking and great fun to explore. Kids will be drawn to the quirky book.—Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

School Library Journal

The long and winding--and funny and diverting--road to creative endeavor. Ike wants to write an incredible story, but first he needs…what does he need? "Maybe he needed to find his favorite pen. And have a long chat with his best friend. And a bit of cleaning was also in order." Also, clearly, he needs to make his own ink! Shadows are "shifty and mysterious" like ink, so Ike nabs a shadow and safeguards it in a bag. The dark side of the moon is black like ink, so Ike matter-of-factly builds a spaceship to go fetch some. "It's hard to say what Ike found on the dark side of the moon, because he didn't bring a flashlight. But whatever he found went in that big bag." Ingredients procured, he bludgeons, steams and mashes them together using flasks and beakers, a mallet and his own feet. Ike's a quirky character with spindly limbs and a torso shaped--and sometimes spattering--like an ink blot. In digital collage and, natch, ink, Farley balances textured backgrounds and black splashes (the blender scene is spectacular) with a minimalism that emphasizes Ike's singular project. Whether he needed the ink for itself or needed its creation as story fodder, Ike's finally ready to sit down and write. A realistically comical look at artistic process disguised as merry procrastination. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews