Anna Walker, Snap!, Scribe Publications, November 2022, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781922585387
I love this book! From the embossed cover to the quirky endpapers to the word play of the text this picture book by award winning author and illustrator, Anna Walker is the bee’s knees!
Frog thinks he is alone in the forest until he hears a sound. What follows is an adventure as frog meets many creatures in the forest, some friendly, others not.
At first Snap! appears to be a very simple story perfectly suited to a younger audience (0-6 years). However, with close reading and rereading the many layers of this book become evident. The collage-like illustrations have a beautiful simplicity and the movement of frog across each page helps to move the story along. The text uses ablaut reduplication, where the interior vowels are altered in repetition (yes, I had to Google that), for example, drip drop, splish splash and bump jump. These word pairs are often spread across page turns encouraging the reader to predict the second part of each pair and then turn the page to find out what comes next. Finally, akin to a wordless picture book, with its minimal text, Snap! allows the reader much scope to interpret the pictures and add layers to the story.
Frog’s facial expression as he moves through the forest is the icing on the cake and had me grinning by the final page. I would highly recommend Snap! to everyone who loves frogs, loves art, loves words, loves picture books – it is a feast for the senses.
Reviewed by Anne Varnes