Look Back!

by Trish Cooke, Caroline Binch (Illustrator)

Overview

A beautiful picture book that tells children that it is okay to be afraid. Who was the mysterious Ti Bolom? Could he be real or was he just one of Grandma’s inventions from her Caribbean childhood? Illustrator Caroline Binch and writer Trish Cooke—both acclaimed award winners—come together to tell this magical story of Grandma’s rainforest adventure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566569804
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	1 - 2 Years

About the Author

Trish Cook is an award-winning author, scriptwriter, and actress of Dominican heritage. Her most popular children’s book, So Much, won the Smarties Book Prize and the Kurt Maschler Award. She has written plays for stage, television, and radio and also runs creative writing workshops. Caroline Binch is an award-winning children’s illustrator and author best known for her illustrations of the international bestseller, Amazing Grace. Her book Hue Boy won the Smarties Gold Award in 1993 and Gregory Cool was highly commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal. She lives in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Editorial Reviews

This is a beautiful book with painstaking, lifelike illustrations that pull you into the story from the start - And I love the way the exploration collides here with a celebration of the rapport between a grandmother and her grandson: family, at its best, the ultimate tonic.
—The Observer

Atmospheric illustrations - A very special story about the power of the imagination.
—Parents in Touch

You feel as though you were there. And you could be. Maybe.
—Bookwitch

It is a great pleasure to recommend another title by the same award-winning author. I would hazard a guess that Look Back! will be just as popular with a slightly older readership at KS1 and early KS2.
—The School Librarian

Binch's lavishly detailed art pulls readers into the setting and expertly conveys Christophine's nervous movement. ...a story whose characters feelings are so vividly rendered readers may recall seeing such expressions in real life. Beautiful visuals aside, it will also make a walloping read-aloud, with its West Indian cadences....
A lovely celebration of the grandparent and grandchild relationship. (Picture book. 5-9) —Kirkus Reviews

Beautiful realistic watercolors mirror the plot and let the reader in on the secret. This will make a great read-aloud, and youngsters will love chiming in with the call-and-response, 'eh kwik eh kwak'. —Booklist

Gorgeous, lifelike illustrations of Caribbean rainforests and a Dominican-American family bolster the appeal of this tale...Honoring the grandparent-grandchild relationship and family heritage, this book will be a new favorite for imaginative youth. —Foreword

Many children's picture books aim to quieten childish terrors-it goes with the territory-offering the equivalent of a soothing nightcap before bedtime. But in this picture book reassurance comes with several new slants. 'Look Back!' by Trish Cooke and Caroline Binch even has the confidence to remind children (and parents) that fear is an inevitable part of life. This is a beautiful book with painstaking, lifelike illustrations that pull you into the story from the start. Cooke tells a West Indian grandmother's tale about a predator no one has ever clapped eyes on-Ti Bolom. We meet the grandmother as a little girl with furrowed brow and braided hair, standing in a tropical wilderness and turning to look back at... nothing. Sometimes that is the nature of fear: the predator you never see but continue to believe exists. And I love the way the exploration collides here with a celebration of the rapport between a grandmother and her grandson: family, at its best, the ultimate tonic.

From the Publisher

Many children's picture books aim to quieten childish terrors-it goes with the territory-offering the equivalent of a soothing nightcap before bedtime. But in this picture book reassurance comes with several new slants. 'Look Back!' by Trish Cooke and Caroline Binch even has the confidence to remind children (and parents) that fear is an inevitable part of life. This is a beautiful book with painstaking, lifelike illustrations that pull you into the story from the start. Cooke tells a West Indian grandmother's tale about a predator no one has ever clapped eyes on-Ti Bolom. We meet the grandmother as a little girl with furrowed brow and braided hair, standing in a tropical wilderness and turning to look back at... nothing. Sometimes that is the nature of fear: the predator you never see but continue to believe exists. And I love the way the exploration collides here with a celebration of the rapport between a grandmother and her grandson: family, at its best, the ultimate tonic.

The Observer

03/01/2015
K-Gr 2—The story begins with Grannie asking young Christopher, "I ever tell you about Ti Bolom?" She follows her question with a loud, "Eh Kwik!" to which Christopher answers, "Eh Kwak!" a call-and-response refrain traditionally used for storytelling in Dominica. Grannie then goes on to tell him of a mysterious creature that haunted her childhood wanderings. Wherever she went, Ti Bolom was sure to follow, yet, try as she might, Grannie could never catch sight of him. The woman keeps the boy (and readers) on edge as she recounts the many close calls she had in keeping her distance while also trying to see what he looked like. After trying to capture a glimpse of him using the bottom of a polished pot as a kind of mirror to look behind her, she ends her part of the story by saying she became so afraid that she never tried to look for him again. This gives Christopher an idea to go looking for the creature as well, using a mirror and a flashlight. He encounters Ti Bolom right away and here is where the author and illustrator make a peculiar and unsatisfying decision: they reveal Ti Bolom's image in Christopher's mirror, an image that is very much like the ubiquitous smiley-faces that originated in the '60s, followed by an uncharacteristic comment made to Christopher by the creature. It just doesn't add up. VERDICT This potentially terrific read-aloud and audience participation selection falls disappointingly flat at the end.—Maggie Chase, Boise State University, ID

School Library Journal

2014-06-25
A grandmother tells a story from her West Indian childhood to her grandson.Grannie questions her grandson: "I ever tell you about Ti Bolom?" Ti Bolom is a folk character from Grannie's childhood home of Dominica who terrifies people walking alone at night. She begins a "Little Red Riding Hood"-esque story from her youth, telling her grandson that when she was his age, she was tasked with taking food to an old lady who lived in the jungle. Grannie (then called Christophine) knew it would be dark on the way back and was afraid she'd meet Ti Bolom but braved the journey nonetheless. Binch's lavishly detailed art pulls readers into the setting and expertly conveys Christophine's nervous movement. Though Christophine escapes Ti Bolom's clutches, the curious and brave child returns to the jungle to set a trap for the trickster. Sadly, the ending—both the text and illustration—doesn't leave readers room to make up their own minds about the validity of Grannie's tale. However, this does not spoil a story whose characters' feelings are so vividly rendered readers may recall seeing such expressions in real life. Beautiful visuals aside, it will also make a walloping read-aloud, with its West Indian cadences, repeated onomatopoeia and folk refrain of " ‘Eh Kwik!' ‘Eh Kwak!' "A lovely celebration of the grandparent and grandchild relationship. (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews