Australian author/artist team Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood, who have also collaborated on such titles as Half a World Away (Amy and Louis in the original Australian edition) and Clancy & Millie and the Very Fine House, present this picture-book exploration of the power of books to take us anywhere in the world, at least in our imaginations. Two children, clearly from an impoverished background, find a book on the ground and are transported in magical ways away from their gritty surroundings...

The text in Look, A Book! is extremely sparse, with a number of two-page spreads entirely wordless, making the artwork especially important in conveying the story. As a long-time admirer of Freya Blackwood - The Selkie and the Fisherman and Her Mother's Face being two particular favorites, of the works she has illustrated - one who picked up this book largely for her artwork, that balance of text and image was fine with me. As expected, the visuals here were appealing, with sepia tones predominating. I appreciated the way in which Blackwood took elements of a fairly blasted landscape, such as discarded trash, and incorporated it into the magic, as in one scene in which the children riding off on a soda bottle. I don't know that this is destined to be a favorite of mine, but I did appreciate the overall message concerning the power of story, and I liked the almost William Carlos Williams-esq finding of beauty in impoverished places to be found in the artwork. ( )