STORYWRAPS: The Hole - a book review

Quote of the Day:
" She unbent her mind afterwards - over a book!"
- Charles Lamb

Author and Illustrator: Oyvind Torseter

Øyvind Torseter is a Norwegian artist, illustrator, comic book artist, and author. Torseter studied illustration at the Merkantilt Institutt in Oslo, the Skolen for Grafisk Design in Oslo, and the Kent Institute of Art and Design in England. In addition to his own books, books illustrated by Torseter include the My Father’s Arms Are A Boat by Stein Erik Lunde. During his career, Torseter has emerged as one of Norway’s foremost illustrators.

About this book:

The first thing you will notice when you pick up this book is that there is a hole carved right through it ... from cover to cover. Little fingers will fit through the hole and a good "peek" will unveil the person or things that your eye can bring into focus on the other side. Oyvind has taken this concept and written a fabulous story around it and it works very well with both young and old.

A mutant character moves into an apartment and discovers a hole in the wall when he sits down to dinner. The fun part is that the reader actually is introduced to the hole first and the story picks up from there. The hole is no ordinary one. It moves up and down and then across the floor which trips the fellow so he decides he had better get to the bottom of this mystery and check out this strange phenomenon called "the hole".

He decides to call up a local lab and see if they can help him.

"Hello, I've discovered a hole in my apartment...It moves...If you could come take a look...Bring it down, you say? What? Hello?" The lab tells him to capture the hole, box it up, then bring it in so they can run some tests and make an analysis of it. He successfully catches it and off he goes hoping to solve this strange mystery. "We'll keep the hole for the moment and contact you later," says a serious woman in a lab coat.

Can the lab give him the answer he is looking for? Will the hole be gone from his apartment forever and never bother him again or return to it's original location? The reader again is the one who finds the answers to these questions first making him feel very important indeed and part of this brilliant storyline.

This fun, interactive book is pure imagination. It is almost wordless which makes it even more engaging because your child can fill in dialogue and ideas as you go along with the pictures. The line drawings are witty and humorous and the illustrator has used pictures around the hole to give it a whole new perspective and the illusion that the hole has indeed shifted and moved. Oyvind has transformed the hole into a balloon, a streetlight and a nostril, just to name a few. This amusing story will delight children as they keep watching the hole and as the pages turn, it magically and playfully morphs from place to place and into something brand new.