Red Sled follows a father and son on one snowy evening as they decide to trek up the nearest hill and sled down it.
With minimalist writing, I believe the illustrations really tell most of the story. Most of the sentences were made up of two words and I was wondering, why not just get rid of the words all together? I did not need them to tell me what was going on.
But at the end of Red Sled, there is an author’s note from Patricia Thomas that explained her minimalist style and merited a little head nod from me. Thomas indicates the structure of the story was inspired by an ancient form of writing called chiasmus in which a mirror image is created with thoughts, words, and sounds that climb to a center point before descending and reflecting to the end. Thomas adapted the chiasmus structure to create a “hill” with her words that matched the hill in the pictures. When she puts it that way, it seems really clever!
Whether you “get it” or not, Red Sled may be a fun book for the little ones who are more interested in the illustrations than the words anyway.
Recommended for children two to five years of age.
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Patricia Thomas attended and graduated from Penn State University. She has worked as a writer and editor in various areas of the advertising business. She is an instructor for the Institute of Childrens Literature. She lives in Carbondale, Pennsylvania.
Chris L. Demarest attended the University of Massachusetts where he majored in fine art and studied print making. Before breaking into children’s book publishing, he painted houses for a living. He has worked with watercolors, pastels, and acrylics. He averages two major books per year along with three minor ones. He lives in a small town in New Hampshire.
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