Reviews: Once Upon an Ordinary School Day

This review first appeared in The Independent, Apr 2, 2004.

   Once Upon an Ordinary School Day by Colin McNaughton, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura (Andersen, £ 10.99). A lyrical and loveable story of a bored schoolboy who is taken into another world when a teacher plays a piece of music in class. "As the music grew and swooped and danced and dived," the boy's imagination is let off the leash. With its humorous pictures, this poetic rhapsody on the power of music is like watching a kite fly.

By Sally Williams.

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

   One day a very ordinary boy gets up and does all the ordinary things that every school child does; he gets dressed, has breakfast, kisses his mother goodbye, and walks to school. Once there he plays an "ordinary game of soccer with his ordinary friends" before he goes into his "ordinary classroom." It is at this point that the ordinary part of his day disappears for a new teacher, Mr. Gee, arrives on scene.

   What Mr. Gee wants the children to do is to listen to a piece of music and to write down what the music makes them think of. He wants them to describe the "pictures" that come into their minds as they listen. At first the children think that their new teacher is "bonkers' and "as nutty as a fruitcake" but then some of them start to understand what he is talking about. All at once their minds are flooded with pictures and the ordinary boy in particular finds himself being swept away on the reflections of his imagination. He sees elephants and himself riding on the back of one of them; he sees himself diving in the ocean on the back of a dolphin; he sees himself floating high up in the sky with the birds. The ordinary boy describes all the sights and wonders that he sees and experiences. After he has completed his writing he realizes that Mr. Gee has opened the door on a new and wondrous world for him.

   This superb tribute to the power of the imagination and how it can change your life is beautifully crafted. The mood subtly changes as the ordinary boy moves away from his ordinary life into a new one where his thoughts and dreams can take him to wonderful places. The illustrator has cleverly captured this change of mood by rendering the illustrations in the beginning of the book in tones of grey which change into images full of colour as the ordinary boy takes his first dive into the wonders of his own imagination. By the end of the story everything is shown in vivid colour - a world full of promise and with new not-so-ordinary possibilities.

A Publisher's Weekly review.

   This timeless tale of switched identities was first published in London (Anderson Press, 1999). The opening page shows a witch coming in through a little boy's bedroom window. She shakes her broom over him and hisses a few words. The next morning, when he awakes, Nicolas realizes that he has somehow switched bodies with his cat, Leonardo. There are many funny scenes of Nicolas engaging in feline behavior. Readers also see Leonardo struggling to make sense of a boy's life. At the end of the story, the witch returns and undoes the spell explaining that she had the wrong address.

   The comical illustrations are done in a cartoon style featuring lots of chaotic domestic scenes. This fun adventure makes a great choice for story time and group reading.

Reviewed by Maria Otero-Boisvert.

The World's Fair review.

This book is a lovely piece of prose with great artwork that looks at the power of how certain experiences, and more specifically certain teachers can provide the inspiration that ultimately makes a person who they are.

Although the book presents this theme in the context of a musical experience, I found it generally a good colourful parable on the simple power of educational opportunities, or experiences. For me, it's like the blue whale - if you're lucky, there are certain things that can really excite you, set your course, open your mind, you know - just let you be you. One of these days, it might be interesting to query how many other scientists have their own blue whale, that vivid memory that turned them on to science, that person that created the initial buzz; or whether at the end of it all it was just something of convenience that led them to their careers.

Anyway, I also happen to be a big fan of Satoshi Kitamura. His artwork is really cool. In fact, ideally, it's the sort of thing that would work well with the inkling of an idea I have right now for a Children's Book. This is, of course, if he was interested in working with a geneticist (do you think he'd be interested in working with a geneticist?).

Reviewed by David Ng, Director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia.

Uplifting picture books that don't preach

An ordinary boy goes through his life, not knowing that he's missing out on anything (although the images show us he is) until a new teacher introduces him to creative writing and thinking--and suddenly the boy's world bursts into color and possibilities. The boy discovers that he loves to write, and that it feels like magic. McNaughton (author of the Preston Pig series, and many other picture books) and Kitamura (author/illustrator of Pablo the Artist (2006) and many other picture books) have created an enjoyable story of the delight of learning to write fiction.

The text moves from an almost lyrical rhythm, with the repetition of "ordinary," to more creative language (the music "swooped and danced and dived" and "it was as if a dam had burst in his head and words just came flooding out").

Readers will love the repetition of "ordinary" in the text in the beginning (accompanied by lack of color in the drawings) although the frequent repetition may start to irritate some readers before it's dropped. This repetition of "ordinary" is nicely echoed again in the closing of the story, although not so frequently, and the boy clearly remains happy, with extraordinary dreams (a nice turn on the word ordinary) and images still in color.

The text illustrates the boy's discovery and love of what words can do, and gives a concrete example of how to dip into one's own imagination---through listening to a piece of music and letting it make pictures in your head, then writing it out.

The text feels a bit long to me, but this is a personal preference. There are pieces of dialogue and description that don't feel necessary to the story. For me, the two pages of text describing the other children's stories or lack of stories interrupts the flow of the book, and the main character's journey. However, those pages point out that not everyone can let their imagination loose and be inspired by music and writing. Still, this could have been said in a brief sentence or two. I could also have done without the teacher telling the students that he doesn't know them yet; this is stated through his being new.

Overall, the text is encouraging, letting readers know that they, too, can write their own stories if they want to.

The illustrations in the first few pages show how drab and ordinary everything is--everything, including the boy, is a shade of gray. The illustrations add another layer of meaning and understanding that is not overtly mentioned in the text.

Then bright color splashes into the otherwise gray pictures through the new teacher, his yellow suit, and the supplies he carries, showing something extraordinary, different, and hopeful. As the teacher talks, the boy also gains color, while everyone else remains gray. And once the boy is off imagining, everything bursts into color. In two full spreads, we see the boy within his creative imaginings, all without text, riding on the back of a dolphin, flying in the sky with the birds. This last image is echoed in the end papers at the back of the book.

The cartoon-like illustrations have great detail, and are very creative. In the first spread, we see the ordinary boy go through each of the tasks he mentions (waking up, taking a pee, washing up, eating breakfast, etc.) in different rooms of the house, as if they are all occurring at once. The illustrations also move through different perspectives; we start out seeing the boy face on, then from a great distance as he walks through the city (where we also see the new teacher feeding pigeons from a window; some readers will enjoy discovering him on a second read through). We look face on at the boy and his class, then see the teacher as if we are seated with the boy in the classroom. When the boy begins to write, we see the story images flow outward from his desk.

As the illustrations move into the boy's creative stories, they gain greater texture and ribbons of color and design. And, once the entire class has tried creative writing, they are all in color, showing that the writing has changed their lives as well. The illustrations add another level of enjoyment to the story, and greatly augment the text.

There are small bits of magic throughout the story, including the burst into color, boy's own wonderful stories, and the way the new teacher disappears in a cloud of smoke at the end of the day. These touches of magic may encourage readers to dip into their own imagination.

McNaughton captures the release and delight of creative writing in his text, and Kitamura enhances this delight through the bright, fanciful illustrations. The story both entertains and encourages readers to discover their own creative spirits, and to write. I would have preferred less text, but overall this is an enjoyable read.

Recommended. 3 and a half stars (out of five).

Reviewed by Cheryl Rainfield.