Du Iz Tak?

Product Information

I have at last managed to get hold of 'Du Iz Tak?' and I was not disappointed, what a gem! This is a vibrant story that follows a collection of bugs and insects in discovering and exploring the growth of a plant. It shows the highs and lows that come with the natural cycle, the joyful possibilities of new life and the threat emerging from the unwanted arrival of other species. Dark humour is rife throughout the story, with events unraveling unbeknown to those protecting the plant, and creating some excellent dramatic irony. The expressive illustrations are a delight, and only add to the hilarity and sense of wonder. After we finish, I ask them what they thought about it. They always tell me that, at first, it made them uncomfortable when they realized that the book wasn’t in their language, and they thought it would be hard to follow the story. With beautiful illustrations that are full of detail and whimsy, Carson Ellis has created an imaginative and quirky world, hidden away at the bottoms of the garden. Written in an entirely invented language, this playful book cleverly shows how meaning can be found even without understanding the words. A brilliant book for children who are making their first tentative steps in learning to read. A delightfully unique tale that his the possibility to change with every reading. * Carousel *

This book is absolutely genius! Carson Ellis wrote this lovely picture book all in a language that she completely made up! However, it isn’t complete and total gibberish because she paired her curious little insects with illustrations that help tell the story and repeats her new words in a pattern that helps you decode what the insects may actually be saying. This leaves the reader feeling quite proud and intelligent because they aren’t lost the whole time, in fact, they can follow the story quite well! A bold retro color palette and lots of white space allow a big beautiful story plenty of room to breathe. The discoverers of the shoot enlist the help of a wise and many-legged elder who lives inside a tree stump — a character reminiscent in spirit of Owl in Winnie-the-Pooh. He lends the operation his ladder and the team begins building an elaborate fort onto the speedily growing plant. Night comes, then autumn, bringing their own magic as the world silently performs its eternal duty of churning the cycle of growth and decay. Carson Ellis has created a fantastic microcosm with her usual grace and inventiveness…I was completely captivated by Ellis’s wonderful creatures, their charming little world and their droll language.Toen ik gisteren aan vrienden ‘Kek iz tak?’ van Carson Ellis liet zien en ook een stukje voorlas, besefte ik nog eens hoe geweldig ik het zou vinden als ik kinderen had. ‘Kek iz tak?’ is zo’n prentenboek waarmee je op een fantastische manier kunt spelen (of nee: moet spelen). Bij dit prentenboek ben je verplicht stemmetjes te doen.

With minimal text and crisp images, Ellis’s book is deceptively simple, but don’t be fooled; this whimsical story requires a close reading to truly absorb all its subtle delights.I feel like Du Iz Tak offers a great opportunity to have a conversation with kids about having a growth mindset and about not giving up just because something is hard or unfamiliar. Honestly, Carson Ellis' absolutely delightful Du Iz Tak? (What is That?) is for me not only a perfect picture book both illustratively and textually, but is also a book which I dearly wish I could rate with more than the five star maximum allowed by Goodreads (as in my opinion, Du Iz Tak? is a ten star offering, a glowingly amazing and evocative homage to life, to the seasons, to imagination and fun, and to have a text, to have a narrative that presents an invented language, well, for linguistically inclined and interested me, that was and is truly the appreciated icing on an already most delightful and delicious cake). The fort collapses and the bugs, looking not terribly distraught — perhaps because they know that this is nature’s way, perhaps because they know that they too will soon follow the flower’s fate in this unstoppable cycle of life — say farewell and walk off.

Assuming you have had the opportunity to read Du Iz Tak?to kids in schools or on your book tours, what was their reaction to the text? Do they ask you to translate it for them? Do they come up with their own meaning? Have you learned anything unexpected about your book from these experiences? So Carson wrote out her text for the first time—in English. “We gave them the translation and they completely rewrote their own version,” Ellis said. Du Iz Tok? has been sold in many different countries including Sweden, Holland, Germany, Portugal and China. Translations had to ensure that the nuances from each different language were accounted for, so that the ‘gibberish’ still worked. She submitted a manuscript with text only. “The words were all gibberish and there were no sketches,” she recalled. “Just a lot of illustration notes like, ‘Two damsel flies approach a small plant.’” Yes, within reason. I don't think that all kids are ready to deal with whatever subject matter we want to lob at them obviously. My five-year-old is wild for horror. He loves scary stuff so I read him scary stories (I love horror too). But I won't read him Otto in the Tomi Ungerer anthology I just bought because it's about the Holocaust and we're Jewish and he's five. I don't think it's time for that conversation yet. For some other five-year-old and his mom it wouldn't be time for horror yet either. We're all different and we're entitled to set our own boundaries and make our own judgement calls. So it's probably too simple to say that kids "get it" and we should be exposing them to more difficult stuff. But, yes, I do think in general we tend to shelter them more than they want or need when it comes to books. I also think that in general we expect books for kids to have some kind of moral takeaway, some lesson to learn and I think that's a bummer. Books are art and when we make them for children they should reflect what makes literature and visual art wonderful to us, as adults. Of course some books should teach lessons. But some shouldn't. The handwritten type in your books add to their style. Though not strictly calligraphic, the source is evident with your distinctive art. How did you come to that choice and do you anticipate always using your own hand-drawn type?Met dit boek geef je aan wie naar je luistert door dat jij niet de baas bent. Want als het winter wordt, wordt het stil. Tot er weer twee beesten bij een scheutje staan en de ene vraagt: Kek iz tak? Ellis’ precise and detailed illustrations of bespectacled bugs and an elaborate fort utterly beguile…It would be easy to make such a story clever for the sake of being clever, but instead Ellis has created one of the smartest, most original and most endearing picture books of this year. Du iz tak? It’s a keeper is what it is. But when the bird leaves, one of them discovers — with the excited exclamation “Su!,” which we take to mean “Look!”— that the plant has not only survived the invasion but has managed, in the meantime, to produce a glorious, colorful bud.