Jimmy Liao, English text adapted by Sarah L. Thomson,
The Blue Stone: A Journey Through Life
Little, Brown 2008.

Ages 4-8

Jimmy Liao's 80-page picture-book The Blue Stone follows his very successful and similarly formatted Sound of Colors, published to much acclaim in 2005. The talented Taiwanese illustrator again powerfully evokes worlds of feeling in his work, which traces the process of a blue stone as it is encountered - and transformed - by human beings.

The story begins deep in the forest. After "ten thousand years go by," the blue stone is split into two parts. One remains in the forest; the other is taken to the first of many sculptors (and other people) who will work on the stone. In every new manifestation - elephant, bird, fish, moon - and each new environment - museum, circus, prison, orphanage - bits of the stone break off, until at last it is "only a few grains of sand... light enough to rise with a breath of summer wind." Tiny particles of stone float back to the forest "to lie with its other half where it has always belonged."

Liao's artwork is full of fascinating, question-provoking details. Why, in the vast green forest, do only barren tree trunks surround the blue stone? Children with wonderfully distinct faces populate the pages, along with hilarious cats and dogs, but why are those kids who find the stone in a field all dressed alike? How can a stone act as a juggling ball? By the time the stone dust has blown back to the forest, the pictures may have inspired many plot lines, despite a somewhat distracting text. "Its heart breaks a little. It wants to go home," goes the refrain after each new incarnation of the stone. Whether read as a simple story of changes over time or as a profound parable of hope and reincarnation, the text for this "journey through life" feels oversimplified. Something seems lost in translation, either from the Chinese language original to English or from visual to verbal image. Nevertheless, the images alone will prompt young readers to a sense of wonder and mystery about the ever-changing blue stone.

While some children will appreciate the story spelled out for them in words, many others will find The Blue Stone even more satisfying and stimulating as a graphic picture book.

Charlotte Richardson
July 2008