Once Upon a Time There Was and Will Be So Much More

by Johanna Schaible, Johanna Schaible (Illustrator)

Overview

Take a journey from the distant past into a future to be imagined with this gorgeous debut picture book whose gradated pages reflect the passage of time.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, land took shape. Millions of years ago, dinosaurs lived on Earth. Thousands of years ago, people built towering pyramids. Ten years ago, the landscape looked different. A month ago, it was still summer. A minute ago, the light was turned off. Now! Make a wish! What will you be doing in a week? How will you celebrate your birthday next year? What will you discover when you are older? What will hold you in awe forever? Moving inexorably from an age primeval into a future filled with questions, Johanna Schaible brings her beautiful collage artwork to an exploration of time that melds a conceptual vision with a physical one. With each page turn, the pages gradually become smaller—showing more and more borders from the past—until they reach the present moment, then grow larger again as time expands into a future full of possibilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536222135
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Pages:	56
Sales rank:	1,105,763
Product dimensions:	7.94(w) x 10.38(h) x 0.38(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Johanna Schaible is a collage artist and illustrator based in Switzerland. Once Upon a Time There Was and Will Be So Much More, her debut picture book, was discovered as part of the Unpublished Picturebook Showcase.

Editorial Reviews

Johanna Schaible’s ‘Once Upon a Time There Was and Will Be So Much More’ is a marvel to hold and to behold. I’ve never seen a book quite like it… It’s a wonderful feat of bookmaking. No mere gimmick, the changing dimensions help situate the reader in the present and enhance the book’s emotional impact. And the questions give kids plenty to think about. Like the best books, this one will live in the reader’s mind for a long time after its cover closes.
—The New York Times Book Review

This Swedish import asks children to ponder time on a mammoth and ever shifting scale. . . . Ambitious and thought-provoking.
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 08/20/2021

Gr 2–4—Schaible's simple text spans billions of years in a few dozen pages. The first half of the book prompts readers to consider the past, with the text on the verso stating what has already transpired. The second half of the book takes on the future and enlists readers directly through text on the recto. It asks them to consider where they think they will be tomorrow, next year, or even in a decade. Like a film that experiments with different aspect ratios, the illustrations' sizes subtly contribute to the book's mood. Billions of years in the past, the renderings are full-bleed spreads, wide and seemingly limitless. With each flip of the page, readers get closer to the present day. The images shrink. The white space around them grows. By the time the book arrives at "now," the image is mere fraction of previous ones, conveying the tight immediacy of a single moment. Then there is a turning point. As the narrative points to the future, the images get gradually larger, and the white space smaller. The final image, like the first, spans to the very edge of the page, eliminating any margins. As the pictures grow, the possibilities seem infinite. VERDICT An essential purchase, this is a must-read to share with children as they begin to ponder the infinite.—Chance Lee Joyner, Haverhill P.L., MA

School Library Journal

2021-07-14
This Swedish import asks children to ponder time on a mammoth and ever shifting scale.

The book’s first half, with sweeping, panoramic vistas, peers backward, beginning with “billions of years ago” when the planet was formed. In the next spread, readers see dinosaurs millions of years back, then humans migrating “hundreds of thousands of years ago.” The book continues shifting forward in huge increments of time until it arrives at “a year ago,” when it starts shifting forward by a month, a week, a day, an hour, and a minute—zooming in on a particular house and family—until it reaches the present moment, in which readers see a shooting star and text that reads “Now! Make a wish!” With each page turn, the border of clean white space around the illustrations grows in size, thereby shrinking the view. The book’s second half looks back out and direct questions at readers in a second-person voice: “Where will you be in the afternoon?” The borders shrink and the illustrations increase in size as readers are asked to ponder their futures, from tomorrow to next month to next year and so on. Here, questions asked of readers are inviting and as grand in scale as the vistas they’re paired with: “What will you look back on when you’re old?” and “What do you wish for the future?” Humans are often depicted at a distance from readers but appear to represent a mixture of races. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Ambitious and thought-provoking. (Picture book. 5-10)

Kirkus Reviews