Not a Box

Antoinette Portis’s background as an art director is unsurprising. This book has a completeness to it that comes from having been conceived in design terms. Dedicated ‘to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes’, it celebrates the power of the imagination at a time when it could be said to be under threat from the vast range of sophisticated toys and amusements available to the average child. The book will strike a chord with those of us prone to assertions such as, ‘We had to make our own amusements when we were your age’. Not a Box is a true picture book. The dialogue between word and image explores some of the endless possibilities of a simple cardboard box. The pictures cleverly describe both the box and its imaginary manifestations while the words reflect a child’s exasperation at the literalism of the adult mind. Each image has a powerful graphic simplicity and the book is nicely finished in utilitarian cardboard box brown card. Highly recommended.