In the Half Room

This book is outstanding. It’s everything I hope of having in a children’s book. Surrealist illustrations, resonant words, and playful irreverence. My almost two year old requests it by name (he calls it “SHOOOOP!”). We read it many, many times every night (even more than the exalted car book, Toot Toot Beep Beep). It’s my new favorite, my husband’s new favorite, and most importantly, my child’s new favorite. And MIL hates it which tbqh makes me love it even more.

Carson Ellis has this wonderful way of communicating both to children and adults. In my mind, this is the mark of an enduring children's author, since we are the ones who must read these books aloud again and again. In this book, which is aimed (supposedly) at very small children, we find the understated-yet-brilliant artwork Ellis is known for, the subtle humor, the ability to create images children will care about and find interesting, but we also find something more. In this book, we find a parable of life's natural incompleteness. Ellis draws attention to how people, society, and nature are in search of unity and wholeness. In this beautiful book, sometimes the search produces the unity we all want, while other times we continue on as "two half cats," still divided but still sharing the same bed. In this time, so marked by the toxic combination of division and self-assurance, Ellis reminds us how much we need each other, yet without ever jeopardizing the Number One Task of writing a good book which will charm and entertain children. This is a brilliant book our family will be reading for a long, long time. Well done!

My kids loves this book we got them for Christmas. They're 2 years old, and the half versions of everyday items on the pages really makes them focus and try to figure out what's going on. We've read this over 10 times and I'm still not entirely sure what's going on, but it's a nice read...over and over.

As it was Caldecott Honor Winner, it wasn't as outstanding as I expected it to be.

This book just didn't do it for me. Illustrations are nice but that's about it. Ended up returning it.

Illumination is at the heart of this story and how a moon lights a room and at times how everything seems to only be a series of halves. It is quirky and at the first pass through might seem “disconnected” but by allowing the imagination to fill in the dark spots, we can see the mystery revealed. A child, who does not know the phases of the moon, might not understand why they only see half a moon, half a table or half a cat so they will explore this option with glee and curiosity. It is very crafty and is a book about halves and wholes that allows the imagination to explore what the eyes are seeing. The surreal artwork lends a touch of fantasy to the story and brings to mind some of the great surreal art by the likes of Dali, Picasso and Arp. This is a slyly sophisticated book, take a look!