Entire fictional universes, made to scale and complete in every detail, have been created by daring writers such as Jonathan Swift (“Gulliver’s Travels’’) and Jean de Brunhoff (“The Story of Babar’’). Daniel Schallau’s Icetown in “Come Back Soon’’ warrants inclusion in any listing of great literary landscapes.

Icetown, inhabited solely by penguins, is an architectural fantasy, splendid with a new ice hotel, designed by Elephant, who gets invited back to celebrate his creation.

Amid the festivities, the giant snowball Elephant is riding goes haywire and smashes into the hotel. With the help of all the penguins, matters are soon set aright. Readers will be left with a deep affection for the penguins, who treat each other with unfailing courtesy and rationality, offering us a model for behavior that encourages both civility and thriving commerce. The entire tale intriguingly takes place on two levels: the detailed primary illustrations, which then are platonically repeated in a shadow play against the icy landscape and the wintry sky.

"...Schallau’s ...Icetown contains a multitude of inventive pleasures. The general level of civility recalls the world of Babar, but the elaborate yet always readable spreads are distinctly Schallau’s own. Though the narrative is quite scattershot in nature, the complete, freestanding visual universe Schallau creates compels close inspection. Ages 3–7. (Sept.)

“ Like Schallau's debut, The Traveler: A Magical Journey (1997), this picture book features extraordinary illustrated structures."
"...Schallau's pictures are certainly fun to examine...”

"This busily surreal tale will make readers feel as though they’ve walked in on the middle of a conversation."

“...the Arthur Geisert-like pen-and-ink and colored-pencil illustrations...are replete with numerous tiny details that children are likely to pore over...”