Cute little book with hardly any words and even less dialog - most of the words are labels on places, people, and things. On each pair of facing pages, we get the successive building of a new layer onto two houses - a game of one-up-man-ship between two neighbors. I particularly liked the various "highest-paid architect in the world" labels, on different people as the buildings increase. As the cover shows, there's no attempt at making the buildings make sense structurally - and finally one comes tumbling down. The other stands...but it's not such a wonderful place to live, as we see on the last few pages. I like the wild boars. The book is physically ridiculously tall - twice the height of a normal hardback, though rather narrower (and thin, too - only 48 pages). It caught my eye, sticking out from the library shelf. ( )

Two neighbors, Agenor-Agobar Poirier des Chapelle and Willigis Kittycly Junior, get into a game of one-up-manship in this humorous Swiss picture-book, each attempting to make his own house the tallest, fanciest, most prestigious structure in their area. Using costly and rare materials, and employing the foremost architects, they build up and up, until finally both homes are sky high. When one neighbor's house comes tumbling down, it seems that the other has won this odd game. But has he...?

Originally published in Switzerland as Les Gratte-Ciel (literally, "The Skyscrapers"), this extremely tall picture-book is the second title I have read from author Germano Zullo and illustrator Albertine, following upon Line 135. Although not quite as impressive as that other title - I found this one entertaining, but not poignant in the way that Line 135 was - Sky High is still an engaging and humorous book. I appreciated the ending, in which both neighbors discover that their quest has led them to a less-than-desirable place: Agenor-Agobar because his house has collapsed into rubble, and Willigis because his abode is too large to live comfortably in. The black and white artwork, which looks like it was done in ink, is detailed and full of amusing little details, with many items and people being labeled. Recommended to anyone who enjoys somewhat quirky picture-books, as well as to those searching for children's stories about the dangers and folly of overconsumption. ( )

Summary:
Genre:
Illustrations: Hand-Drawn
Age Group: 3-10
Themes:
My impressions:
Lesson Plan: ( )

I'm not sure what the book is about. ( )