One Potato Review

Van Allsburg at his dreamy best. This author wears his enigma too heavily sometimes, and the result can be kind of unnerving; it’s hard to know where to look, never mind what the heck is going on in the story. Think of the glassy expressions in The Polar Express; it wasn’t just the movie where something seemed missing. You hardly get a glimpse of the faces of these characters – the boy sailor who is determined to overcome gravity, and the mysterious inhabitants of a reef-sheltered island where he washes ashore – and the dodge is surprisingly effective: a beautifully told fable where the words do their share of the flying.