I love books that defy traditional forms of story. This is what you get when you read Caldecott Medalist Allen Say’s Tonbo, published by Clarion Books. It is a Benjamin Button in picture book form. It is the type of picture book you will read more than once to understand the different layers, to understand its meaning and magic behind the book, which is described as “semi-autobiographical,” of the main characters journey from his current self to his younger self and back again.
The illustrations are a work of art. Each page depicts a scene in the character’s adventure with texture and brush strokes as impeccable as a painting in a museum or art gallery.
There is mystery in the book and my son and I were filled with questions: Why is the old man getting younger? Is it really happening or it is his imagination? Is his memory fading? Does Tonbo, his toy paper airplane take him back into time?
I think it could be left to interpretation. Maybe it is how we can easily be transformed into different phases of life triggered by something as simple as his toy airplane.
It’s his interactions with the people in the story that is intriguing itself. How one woman calls him a “young man,” or an older man calls him, “son,” and his internal dialogue of how he notices his aches and pains are going away or how is getting younger with each person he meets. It all adds to the mystery.
This picture book is beguiling for both children and the adults that read it to them. Children will want to know what is happening. Every page turn is another mystery.
Adults will revel in the passage of time-how fast it all goes, how wonderful it would be to young again even for awhile, and see our lives through the eyes of our present selves.
The ending is satisfying with the author leaving Tonbo for the next generation just like this picture book as he returns to being his older self.
