Reviews: In the Attic

This review first appeared in The New York Times Book review, June 16, 1985 [p.30].

   Arthur, a furious black-haired, white-faced child, was the protagonist of Hiawyn Oram and Satoshi Kitamura's first book, ''Angry Arthur.'' When his mother told him to turn off the television, Arthur turned on a tantrum so world-shaking that it destroyed the planet and made the universe tremble. This was Max minus the Wild Things; a neat variation on a contemporary picture-book theme.

   The protagonist of ''In the Attic'' looks just like Arthur. But this child is not angry, he is a dreamer. ''I had a million toys'' he begins, ''but I was bored.'' So he climbs the accommodating ladder on his toy fire engine into an attic that soon fills with his daydreams. The first of these features a family of hyperactive mice up to all kinds of mischief. They are followed by an interlude in a tropical garden growing out of the attic floor, a short visit with an industrious spider and lasting friendship with a tiger. At the end of the day, recounting these adventures, the child tells his mother where he has been. When she replies, ''But we don't have an attic,'' he calmly concludes, ''She hasn't found the ladder.''

   Like that small but expandable ladder, this slim story is a springboard into imaginary realms. Mr. Kitamura takes full advantage of it. To illustrate the child's rather adult phrase ''I opened windows to other worlds,'' the artist, who has a fine feeling for rearranging space, juxtaposes close views and far horizons as deftly as the eye of a camera. Under a night sky the attic floor hovers over the Earth, while here and there free-standing windows reflect diverse scenes. It is an attractive, surreal setting. A strange land for a child, but probably an interesting one.

   An equally well-designed double-page-layout farther on is less successful at communicating mood. It animates the line ''My friend and I found a game that could go on forever.'' Instead of a recognizable game, Mr. Kitamura has created what looks like a midair collision between paintings by Paul Klee and Joan Miro over an elliptical chessboard. In a rain of squiggles and exploding stars, the child descends his ladder, a planet in hand. He is smiling. The tiger waits below looking baffled. Perhaps, like the very young children for whom this book is meant, the child is not a symbolic thinker quite yet. What has happened here occurs in sophisticated picture books when an illustrator, caught in his own designing, forgets who his audience is. In this case the moment passes as the page is turned and the child returns to a kitchen full of the familiar, including mother. Using quick, angular pen strokes, Mr. Kitamura delineates the commonplace with style. And he delights in tiny details - miniature boxes, a carrot dropped near the garbage - that will reward searching young eyes.

By Karla Kuskin; a poet and illustrator.

The Looking Glass Review features children's book reviews for books published in the UK, US and Canada.

   A little boy has dozens and dozens of toys and yet he is bored stiff so he decides to go up into the attic to explore. At first the attic seems empty and them he starts to 'discover' tiny and imaginary worlds there. There are the mice, busy doing all sorts of things and then there is a "colony of beetles" who live in a place where the little boy can "rest and think."

   Each time the reader turns the page it is to find that the little boy has found yet another adventure, yet another bizarre and wonderful world to explore. Best of all is the fact that each adventure has grown out of the little boy's own vivid imagination. We are encouraged to let our own imaginations wonder. What if we were to go to an attic (even if we don't really have one)? What would we find?

   With minimal text and the most astonishing artwork, this is a picture book which is sure to inspire and delight readers of all ages.