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Trifoyle ([personal profile] trefoil_underscore) wrote in [community profile] yuletide 2022-09-27 07:34 am (UTC)

What Is It? Margaret Hillert, Kinuko Craft

Title: What Is It?

Media: Book

Approx length: 29 very short pages!

Where to find it:Anywhere out of print books can be bought. I previously hadn't been able to find much of anything about it online, so I uploaded scans of my copy here. (If tumblr is weird about letting you click the images, right-click to open in another window or zoom in.)

What is it, in summary?: A very simple early grade learning-to-read book. There isn't much story as far as words are concerned (very very short and simple sentences) but the illustrations are incredible. I've remembered them ever since I first encountered the book when I was in either kindergarten or first grade.

What do you love about it?:The illustrations. They're surreal and have a wonderful dreamlike quality, part sci-fi, part fantasy. There's a floating manmade island with domed cities in the sky, the main characters are... elf? children?, the children's mother is a medieval lady, there are robots. It's just so delightful to look at. I was inspired to nominate it after seeing the other interesting stuff people have promo'd and then remembering it, and finally going out and getting myself a copy as I'd been meaning to do for ages (It was very hard to figure out which book I was looking for. Do you know how many books there are with titles that encompass the words "what is it"? A lot apparently! This site helped me find it finally, on WorldCat.org after other fruitless searches. ..Haha, worldcat, there's a cat in the book!)
I'm not entirely sure what I'd be looking for in requesting this, honestly--I just think it's really neat and I want people to know about it!

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:Worldbuilding! Maybe a retelling with less stilted language! What's going on?? What does it smell like there?

Content warnings:None, unless you're easily unsettled by surreal stuff; it's a children's book about some curious elves(?).

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