Like the creator of The Little Prince, Peter Sís (The Wall) fled the occupation of his native land and brings an emotional as well as historical context to his subject.
Sís melds the realistic and the fantastical, beginning with an image of a golden-haired baby floating above a map of his birthplace: "Long ago in France, at the turn of the last century, a little boy was born to be an adventurer." He populates the pages with seemingly far-out inventions of science fiction, then connects the fantastical with reality. Twelve-year-old Antoine flew in a plane as a passenger and knew he wanted to be a pilot; the book doubles as a subtle history of aviation. Sís achieves greatness in the way he connects Antoine's experiences--flying over vast stretches of unpopulated land, a crash landing in the Libyan desert where he meets a fox--back to The Little Prince. A wordless image of the ocean packs an emotional wallop after the loss of Saint-Exupéry's dear friend and country.
This astonishing picture book gives young readers a firm foundation for entering The Little Prince and will lead older readers back to it with augmented appreciation. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness