Published: 18th April 2017
Publisher: Dial Books
Illustrator: Corrina Luyken
Pages: 56
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
One eye was bigger than the other. That was a mistake.
The weird frog-cat-cow thing? It made an excellent bush.
And the inky smudges… they look as if they were always meant to be leaves floating gently across the sky.
As one artist incorporates accidental splotches, spots, and misshapen things into her art, she transforms her piece in quirky and unexpected ways, taking readers on a journey through her process. Told in minimal, playful text, this story shows readers that even the biggest “mistakes” can be the source of the brightest ideas — and that, at the end of the day, we are all works in progress, too.
For a story with very few words, there is a wonderful profound nature and beauty to it. Luyken shows how small mistakes can become different yet beautiful things and can help create new intentional things.
The illustrations are very bare, the ink pictures the obvious focus of the story, but they are stunning and seeing the creativity and the imagination stem from those small mistakes are divine.
As each little mistake progresses you see the illustrator’s mind work and see the changes that happen because of unintentional things, one eye too big, one leg too long. It doesn’t dismiss the mistakes, it offers a chance to make something unique because of it.
The illustrations aren’t all black and white ink drawings, there are speckles of colour which stand out against the vast white pages. I love this story because it is a wonderful concept, but it is also a celebration of imperfection which I adore and shows that one mistake doesn’t have to ruin anything magical or beautiful.
You can purchase The Book of Mistakes via the following
Lost in a Good Book 