An older sister's attempts to flee her rowdy siblings lead to a grand family outing in The Great Escape, an imaginative, heartwarming picture book by author/illustrator Deborah Marcero (In a Jar).
Evie, a white girl with huge glasses and a wizard's hat, believes "in all things magic." Still, no spell can quell the "wild tornado" of her intrusive younger siblings, Wolfie, Bunnie, and Teddy (all wearing onesies that match their names). When Evie races outside, her siblings follow. She casts spells, then drops through the snow, falling "until upside down became right side up... and falling became flying." The siblings follow Evie into a painterly, magical realm of ocean and cosmos. The shadow of a large creature prompts Evie's protective instincts, but Teddy observes that it belongs to a mother whale whose calf is stuck in a net of constellations. Evie and siblings work together to untie and untangle, then grab rides home from the cetaceans.
Marcero's striking illustrations, playful use of form, and rhythmically onomatopoeic text elevate this picture book. The combination of watercolor paints and archival ink pens, interwoven with images of galaxies from the James Webb Space Telescope, creates a textured tapestry that blends worlds above and below. Graphic novel-style panels and vignettes in muted colors cleverly reinforce the ordinary; a drastic shift to an unrestrained palette along with a new reading experience (the reader must turn the book upside down and around) captures the extraordinary. Lastly, Marcero's lyrical yet lively text, with sound effects, particularly from the noisy siblings ("Howl! Growl! Eieioo!"), is sure to make for a stellar read-aloud. --Cristina Iannarino, children's book buyer, Books on the Square, Providence, RI.