Polo: The Runaway Book [Hardcover]

Regis Faller's "Polo" picture books are absolutely brilliant and magical... These fab French imports feature Polo, a cheerful, indomitable cartoon dog with a flair for improvisation, bravery and boundless curiosity... The wordless, multi-panel graphic novels recall the fantastic, breathless wonder of the old "Tin-Tin" books, only without any real sense of danger, just pure adventure, fantasy, and fun.

In this volume, Polo returns, and so do the little green men: one of them sneaks into Polo's bedroom and steals his new book, starting a chase that takes them across the oceans, up into the sky, into a weird, white Limbo and into a cloud kingdom with a delicate princess who becomes Polo's friend. Picking up other friends along the way, Polo crosses deserts and rides clouds, frees a genie and climbs a giant dandelion, like Jack climbed the the beanstalk. Finally, after seventy color-filled pages, he catches up to the little green guy, who is reading the runaway book to a group of his friends. Polo sits down to listen, and when the story is over, the green guy gives it back to him.

Polo is an amazing reading experience, and it expects as much from its readers as it gives back. Adults can guide children through the story, commenting on each panel, or summarizing entire pages, creating the narrative as they go along. Children can also spend hours alone, pouring over the panels and making up stories of their own... and they will!

Highly recommended. One of our favorite books. (ReadThatAgain)

We LOVE the Polo books! They are some of the favorites on our bookshelf. There are no words, just lavish, very creative illustrations. Children can make up a new story each time they read. Polo drives clouds, plants magic beans and climbs a beanstalk, lands on pink clouds that are made of cotton candy, and most importantly, learns that friendship is the most important thing.

A++ from this family!

We (my preschool daughters and I) become hooked on Polo after we stumbled on "The Adventures of Polo" at the library. After finishing that one, we eagerly checked out and read the shorter, smaller Polo books, but searched in vain for this one. I finally decided to break down and buy it, and what a great buy it is! Now I guess I'll have to break down and buy "Adventures" for our permanent collection too.

Like the other Polo books, this book uses bright, bold, colorful, mostly wordless comic-style panels to tell/show an utterly impossible yet completely believable adventure story of the plucky little dog Polo. The story begins even before the beginning with a prologue depicting Polo's friend Lily going to a bookstore that looks suspiciously like a teapot. After selecting just the right book, she has it wrapped and sent off via pelican to Polo's tiny island with his oversized tree house. "My book!" exclaims Polo.

The book proper opens with Polo settling in to read his book in his tree house bedroom. Polo begins to get drowsy, and so he turns off the light and snuggles in for a snooze, his precious book still resting on him. As he sleeps, however, we see a string descend into Polo's window and a mysterious yellow-green light with feet climbs down the string and begins reading Polo's book. The light's laughter awakens Polo, so the light grabs the book and makes a break for it back up the string.

In hot pursuit, Polo climbs up the same string. And climbs, and climbs, until he reaches the end of the string, which isn't attached to anything. Oops, Polo begins to fall, but fortunately he soon lands in a pink cloud of cotton candy. So begins the first of many of Polo's adventures in pursuit of the light and his book. Along the way, Polo meets many new friends and has many adventures which distract him from his chase of the elusive yellow light. But always at unexpected moments, the cunning little light pops back up and the chase is on.

Will Polo ever get his book back? Well, I hate to give away too much, but this being a Polo book, we sense from the beginning that not only will things work out in the end, but they will probably work out all the better for the adventure itself. As usual, we leave Polo safe and sound at his tree house, surrounded by all his newfound friends, along with some old friends.

I can't recommend the Polo books, including and especially this one, highly enough. Regis Faller is an artistic genius on a par with (although rather different from) Graeme Base. Each page contains new delights and subtle humor that will bring your and your little ones back for more and more. This book, along with the other Polo books, is perfect for children (and adults!) of all ages and reading abilities. Even non-readers will be able to "read" along and tell the story. In fact, I highly recommend letting your youngster tell you the story - you just might find new delights you didn't see before.

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