Sandoval writes and illustrates dark, unnerving, and often surreal stories. If you put a button nose on a demon and give it a pastel watercolor wash it's still a demon. That's why I admire a book like his "Watersnakes", which is along the lines of what you'd get if you gave the Grimm Boys some colored pencils and a coloring book on one of their especially grim days. The same is true for "Doomboy" and "A Glance Backward", although they are more melancholy than unnerving.
So, I was curious to see what Sandoval would do with a windy day, a kite, and a little girl. What he did doesn't qualify as a snuggly bed time story. When your kite-flying little girl is attacked by spear carrying cloud-born goblins and then saved by a monstrous forest dwelling wolf, well, happy ending or not that seems a bit stiff for the small crowd.
But you know, the little girl survives, and finds a new friend she calls "Courage". She overcomes her fear of the woods, (although not of chickens), and she gets to fly her kite. She faces danger, has an unsettling adventure, and comes out ahead and on top. That should count for something. It's probably old-fashioned to say that Sandoval has a "Gallic" sense of humor, but it seems to me that that's what's at play here. There is a touch of irony, some humor, a good-hearted undercurrent, and a bit of a c'est la vie shrug.
Interestingly, the art is the visual equivalent of what I just described. The juxtaposition of creepy images with pretty watercolors, and the exaggeration of the figures - with their jagged angles and edges - all join to create images that are terrible and amusing. Again, c'est la vie.
So, as a work - a story and a piece of art - I thought this was terrific. Who would you show this to or read it to? No earthly idea. But if your kid is afraid of the flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz", (like I was), I'd probably wait a while longer.
(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
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