Scattered Seeds

Crazy Hair finally arrived. I couldn’t wait until Christmas to open it, so as soon as the packaged arrived, I ripped open the box and read the book. Unlike The Wolves in the Wall, Neil Gaiman’s writing in this book is highly imaginative, yet a much simpler, tale that revolves around Bonnie and the narrator’s “crazy hair.” The story/poem still contains some sort of a terrifying undertone (for the far too young little children), but that is what makes a Neil Gaiman book a Neil Gaiman book.

For me, the real treasure is in the illustrated images by Dave McKean. I’ve only recently started to re-discover my liking for his work, and this new book doesn’t disappoint. At each turn of a page, I’m very much taken in by his creativity (especially in his varied presentation of hair in this case), careful attention to details and skillful use of colours and mixed media. His presentation of hair is seemingly realistic even though the way in which all the strands of hair swirls, twirls and go crazy all firmly roots the work in the realm of the fantastic. His art is not all eye-candy, and it was fun seeing renditions of animals—macaws, bear, tiger, gorilla and pirates and dancers—in the crazy hair, too. The double-paged art I thoroughly enjoyed looking at is the page with the hot air balloons floating across an expansive field of hair. And that’s just one of the many artwork. There’s just much to admire about Dave McKean’s art in this book.

After going through the book once, I was left wondering if I missed something. I couldn’t find the Queen of Melanesia! It’s obviously not in the text of Gaiman’s poem, so did I miss her somewhere in the pages?

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Related Link:
Another Dave McKean (& Neil Gaiman) Book

Well, well, well. I’ve not yet digested Ray Bradbury’s The Homecoming and I found another book by Dave McKean. I’ll be looking forward to this illustrated picture book. I enjoyed both the picture books—The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and The Wolves in the Walls—by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, so the third one should be interesting. It’s titled Crazy Hair.

Crazy Hair cover

From what I see in the following page spreads, I like it already.

I mean, who’s not to like an octopus and pirates.

Oooh. I just can’t wait.