Mark Svendsen (text) and Benjamin Redlich (illustrator), Where Do Words Go? Coorooman Press, October 2024, 32 pp., RRP $34.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780645126464
What a fascinating question this picture book poses and explores. Where do words go when we have spoken them? Do, for example, writers sweep them into drifts? Or do children rake up old, dead words like leaves into piles? How is it that some words are smooth, and some are bitter? These are just some of the many possibilities Svendsen and Redlich put forward as propositions.
This book is both fun and thought-provoking. It plays with the concept of words, their meanings and their importance. The illustrations accompanying each suggestion about the destiny of spoken words is lively and colourful – and, importantly, has a background of words.
On each page is a little figure, sometimes speaking the words and sometimes just observing them. There are visual jokes such as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza depicted on one page about to tilt at a windmill (a clever piece of intertextuality). The poet figure who appears searching for the ‘sweetest’ words of all holds the word ‘euphoria’ triumphantly between his finger and thumb. His page is shades of green, a happy, calming colour. On the other hand, the page with the little figure shouting angry, bitter words into a microphone is an aggressive red. In other words, there is an exploration of how words and artistic expression work together.
The book ends with an explanation of why words are said with an illustration that echoes the opening double-page spread. It depicts a child in silhouette who is both asking the question and then ultimately answering it.
This delightful book celebrates words in all their forms and power and can be read on many levels and enjoyed by a range of age groups. It is to be shared, read alone, read out loud, discussed and revisited. It can be purchased at the publisher’s website.
Reviewed by Margot Hillel
