Adam Rex enchants with a mind-bender
It's been more than a week since the hearts and flowers of Valentine's Day, but love stories are eternal and the one written — and drawn — by author/illustrator Adam Rex, while decidedly quirky, deserves its moment in the spotlight.
A Little Like Waking
Written and illustrated by Adam Rex Roaring Brook Press
Age 12 and older
I have to confess that A Little Like Waking almost didn't make it into this column. I was halfway through the book when, confused by various plot developments, I put it aside for what should have been a brief pause. It turned out to be days before I resumed reading, and then just because it seemed only fair to finish the story before deciding whether it merited space in the column.
Adam Rex has long been one of my favourite author/illustrators; his skill in both text and art, not to mention his oddball sense of humour, has been a draw since I first encountered the picture book Frankenstein Takes the Cake and The True Meaning of Smekday, a novel. But I had trouble focusing on this new book, partly because it deals not just with love, but also with dreaming. And it's the dreaming that kept my mind wandering (and wondering), as dreams often do.
Zelda, the central character, lives in a picturesque town and one day encounters Langston, a lanky and appealing boy, who “does a header over a railing” while trying to save her from a looming traffic accident. (I had to reread the opening chapter to double-check, since a lot of the first half of the book was jumbled in my head.) Patches, a cat Zelda thought had died years ago after being hit by a car, appears as one of the characters in the story — and can talk! In fact, it quotes poetry and shares bits of wisdom. A wizard named Erx also appears and is integral to what becomes not just a love story between Zelda and Langston, but a lengthy dream sequence in which it's unclear who is the dreamer. Without providing spoilers, let me assure you A Little Like Waking is definitely worth reading.
While its plot line is far from linear, this book has elements of old-fashioned fairy tales (witches appear; a forest floor is covered with exploding mushrooms; Rex's drawing of a gigantic wolf dwarfing a little yellow house will strike fear into anyone's heart), but it also offers bits of comic action. The author's evocative turns of phrase caught my eye early on with the caption on page 4, a fullpage illustration: “Little houses / boutonniered / with flowery window boxes.” I'd never seen “boutonniere” used as a verb, but even without the accompanying art, those seven little words conjure up a lovely image. And by page 332, I was completely won over when a comment from Langston brought tears to my eyes.
Dreamers or not, Rex's characters had wormed their way into my heart.