Graeme Base is one of the most fascinating illustrators currently publishing on the children’s market. The first time I saw his work was on a poster at the public library about ten years ago, and I’ve been a big fan of his work ever since.
In “Uno’s Garden,” we meet a fellow named Uno who wanders out into the forest and likes it so much, he decides to stay. At that time, the forest is lush and green, and he’s surrounded by plants and vegetation. He’s also surrounded by a wide variety of animal life, in this case ten moopaloops and one snortlepig.
As Uno explores his new home, he discovers that nine lumpybums also inhabit the forest, as well as the one snortlepig.
On each page, we see a different kind of animal – we see frinklepods, puddlebuts, snagglebites, tumbletops, gondolopes, flipperflaps, pricklebacks, and of course, the snortlepig. It becomes a game to find all the hidden animals in the illustrations, especially that snortlepig, who gets harder and harder to find as the book progresses.
You see, the more people who come and live in the forest, the fewer animals there are. As the machines come in and remove vegetation, the animals slowly disappear.
As Uno’s children and grandchildren come on the scene, the world begins to change again, and the animals and plants return until finally, there is a perfect balance between humans and their homes, and the animals and their homes.
This book is a combination environmental lesson/counting book/hidden pictures book. The illustrations, as usual from this author, are gorgeous and my kids and I had a lot of fun hunting for the snortlepig, who is, by far, the best character in the book.
(This book was published in 2006 by Abrams Books and was illustrated by the author.)
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