Author: Brian Selznick
Illustrator: Brian Selznick
© Date: 2021
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 192
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, an illustration is at the beginning and end of each chapter
Publisher Recommended Age: 11 years and up
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No, just an author’s note
Summary from Book:
“Go on,” he said. “Look through it.”
I picked up the kaleidoscope and held it to my eye.
“It’s beautiful,” I said.
As I turned the kaleidoscope, the mirrors and colored bits of glass rearranged and fractured the world.
“Now look at me,” he said.
A ship. A Garden. A library. A key. In Kaleidoscope, the incomparable Brian Selznick presents the story of two people bound to each other through time and space, memory and dreams. At the center of their relationship is a mystery about the nature of grief and love, which will look different to each reader. Kaleidoscope is a feat of storytelling that illuminates how even the wildest tales can help us in the hardest times.
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: This one had some beautiful passages, but when I finished, I kind of had no idea what just happened. It felt like someone found chapters of a few books that were kinda related, then threw them all into a hat and randomly pulled them out to make a story. I wanted to love this one (the cover is gorgeous), and I appreciated the unique experience of hitting the end of the story and not really understanding what happened, but the beautiful bits didn’t outweigh my confusion/questions.
The author’s note mentioned the time era and isolation that were being experienced when writing this one, which made the unusual nature of it make a little more sense. In a world that didn’t make sense, writing a logical path story just didn’t feel appropriate. But reading that story made for a unique experience. I am not sure if I will read this one again to see if I make any further sense out of it or if the story shifts in the kaleidoscope lens and seems every bit as confusing.
Use caution for younger or sensitive readers, grief is played out many different ways in this one.
Items of Interest:
- Almost the last chapter discusses a boy’s best friend dying. The friend’s parents then move out of their home. Some other boys eventually set the house on fire. The narrator says that watching the fire burn was like watching his friend dissolve.
- The last chapter has someone on a space ship traveling for many years to a distant planet. Lots of time has passed on the ship, plenty of more time will pass, babies will even be born on the ship.
- The chapter discussing the butterfly and the chrysalis…a caterpillar sheds its skin to reveal the chrysalis inside, but the chrysalis is larger than the caterpillar. Inside the chrysalis everything dissolves so nothing is left of the original caterpillar except its memories, and yes, the butterfly does remember being a caterpillar. One boy concludes that “being in the chrysalis is like falling asleep and dreaming.” The other boy says, “maybe, except you completely come apart and wake up in a new body with wings.”