Home is a Hug

This is a reflective picture book exploring what is packed into that word “home”. Of course it can be bricks and mortar as we see when we open the book to find the builders are there but home is so much more. It can be a shell for a snail, a toadstool shelter, it can be big – or small, it can spell comfort, warmth –   it can be a physical place, a construction or the feeling around that. 

Cindy Wume uses her art to play with all these ideas. The result is pleasingly surreal as snails with multi-patterned house shaped shells crawl across stylised leaves or cats emerge from books (are they books or shelves?) and an enormous apple houses a veritable palace for worms. The images are teasing and full of humour with little cut outs to surprise the eye – including the cover to welcome the reader in. Flaps encourage curious fingers to explore. The final touch – flaps to close in a house hug. Her style is bold, direct, simple but never simplistic with a warm child-friendly feel. Double page spreads burst with colour but are punctuated by pages where the white background allows specific images to be the focus of attention. Wume is an interesting artist and we must look forward to future work.

However, could there be a danger that by moving away from story, books like this could just become the excuse for illustration? The idea and the art need to work together in a meaningful way.