Gr 2—5—"Dad's got ants in his pants," says Mom. That wanderlust has a (surprisingly) positive impact on both the man's relationship with his wife and son and on his ability to spin convincing yarns. Loved without judgment despite his frequent absences, this larger-than-life figure dotes on his family while at home, cooking, gardening, and filling the space with his incredible stories. Like The Illustrated Man, his manifold tattoos provide a springboard for the narrative. In his son's opinion, "Reading his tattoos is more fun than reading any book ever written." There's the two-tailed tiger, encountered after a shipwreck. Dad escaped its clutches after a friend (whom the tiger had just decapitated) managed one last heroic act, gripping the tails in his teeth. In another image, a giant spider—"A city could have fit in its shadow"—reminds Dad of the moment that an army of red ants intervened, just as the arachnid was closing in on him. With appearances by a fortune-teller, a gunslinger, an anaconda, and a traveling circus, the tales' cumulative effect makes the boy wonder where the truth lies. He ultimately decides to embrace the ambiguity and admire the teller. Magicomora's cameos and full spreads, a combination of folk art and caricatures, are drawn with pencil and colored digitally on backgrounds simulating antique wood, replete with stains and cracks. Not for the faint of heart, Nesquens's highly original anecdotes, narrated jointly by father and son in an aura of mystery, will be appreciated by fans of magical realism.—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
A boy relates the fantastical (and sometimes violent) stories that his peripatetic dad tells him, many of which are about his various tattoos. The writing is solid (if wordy), but the stories tend to blur together. Evocative digitally colored pencil drawings on tea-stain-colored pages call to mind old-fashioned promotional circus posters.
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