The Books

Hey Willy, See the Pyramids

by Maira Kalman

One Potato Review

This is Kalman at her jumping, jazzy, barely-tethered best. Eleven little stories strung together as one: the story a sister tells her little brother to get him to go to sleep. The pages where they’re talking are completely black, which makes each of the pages between them – swarming with prepositions and color and several little characters who don’t appear to be entirely human – all the more striking, and memorable. A pitch-perfect representation of the territory between restless wakefulness and mysterious dreams:

“The end,” Lulu whispers.
I think I am asleep.
Then Lulu shuffles back
to her bed
and we both see flying chairs
and green hats
and pink things
and sink some and
slowly sink
into sleep.”

Related Blog Entries