A Boy and a House

Maja Kastelic is an award-winning illustrator. Annick Press has recently released in North America her wordless picture book, A Boy and a House. In 2015, the book was first published in Kastelic’s native Slovenia under the Slovenian title Deček in Hiša.

According to the Annick Press website, as a child, the artist and her best friend “made up incredible worlds in their heads to play in.” Apparently, “there was nothing they couldn’t do.” As the website states, “This childlike image of a world full of possibilities and hidden charms still represents the most important source of inspiration for Maja [Kastelic] as an artist.” A Boy and a House certainly reflects a world of limitless possibilities and hidden charms. A curious boy follows a cat into an apartment building. The building is littered with a child’s drawings on discarded pieces of paper. The boy picks up the drawings as he follows the cat through the building. After ascending a series of staircases, he eventually meets the artist responsible for the discarded drawings.

Some adult readers will no doubt wonder about the appropriateness of having a lone boy wander into a strange and darkened building. Nonetheless, the manner in which the boy follows the light and ascends towards the heavens will possibly alleviate some of those concerns. The illustrations feature skilful use of light to draw the reader through the book. On each double-page spread, the illustration is generally much darker on the left-hand side of the spread. The eye is then drawn across to the light on the right. The light almost always is emanating from an open doorway, thus the book’s protagonist and the reader are drawn to continue to explore whatever mysteries might appear once one has crossed the threshold of the door. It is a skilful way to put the reader in the shoes of the protagonist, wondering just what lies ahead.

The book’s illustrations were created with watercolours. They consist generally of muted colours and imprecise lines. These elements lend a somewhat mysterious feel to the book. Multiple readings are rewarded with identification of new details. Indeed, my experience was that the more I studied the pictures, the more I liked what I saw and recognised its quality. Only after several readings did I notice that a pair of playful mice is concealed in each painting. Framed art adorns the building’s walls, and books litter empty spaces. There is a nod towards Australian illustrator Shaun Tan’s wordless classic, The Arrival, in one framed picture on the wall. Another framed picture is a depiction of dragons by the Englishman, Quentin Blake. The spine of a book propped on a window ledge reads “Summer Book Tovej”, a nod towards The Summer Book by Finnish author, Tove Jansson. Kastelic has included nods to others elsewhere.

A book by the Irishman, James Joyce, is on a shelf near another book by Polish-born children’s author Uri Shulevitz. Fairy tale collectors and authors, the German Grimm brothers and the Dane, Hans Christian Andersen, are included too: the boy begins his journey by leaving his home on Grimm Street. The building into which he follows the cat is on Andersen Street. Kastelic obviously wanted her book to be a celebration of many of her favourite artists and authors. Seeing and appreciating these and other details are the reward for repeated readings and careful study of each illustration. In one illustration, there is even pinned to the wall a written note from the artist, signed Maja [the illustrator’s first name]. In another scene, an unsigned note has been affixed to the wall, conveying the message, “Let it go. Don’t plan so much. Let life surprise you.” The message is perfectly in keeping with the apparent attitude of the book’s creator and her protagonist.

The creator has been willing to sprinkle hidden details throughout her artwork, aware that many of them will go unrecognised by her audience. The book’s protagonist is willing to wander into a darkened building to see what adventures might there be found. Readers who closely examine the illustrations will find themselves in the shoes of the boy, being pleasantly surprised as they let this marvellous little book captivate them. As the boy continues to progress from the shadows to light, a range of delights opens before him. The same is true for the reader who opens this book—there is much to enjoy contained within its covers. As the creator confided in a blog post, “I wanted to make a book I’d give to a dear friend.” If readers are looking for a perfect gift for a dear friend, A Boy and a House might fit the bill to perfection.